A Staggering Year
Staggering is the word that comes to my mind when I try to sum up the world of journalism in 2006, especially that in Northeast Ohio. Several times I've started a blog only to learn of a major development that sent me back to the keyboard.
The Crain's Cleveland Business Web site started a posting in late October thusly, "Buyouts at The Plain Dealer, the sale and gutting of the Akron Beacon Journal, and now this: The San Diego-based parent company of The Repository in Canton, The Independent in Massillon and The Times-Reporter in New Philadelphia has put the papers up for sale."
The changes have affected many of the friends and alumni of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication but perhaps none more than the news that general manager Mike Hanke and special projects editor Rick Senften are taking buyouts from the Rep and will be ending their careers at the end of the month. The lessened payroll is supposed to make the Rep more attractive to buyers. I'm not sure how a paper without Mike and Rick can be more attractive to anyone.
Mike and Rick, both Kent State journalism alums, have meant so much to the school and to Canton. In October the two appeared in Jeff Fruit's media management class; I set in on the class just to learn from two experts. Interestingly one theme that evening was how well the Rep had been doing in recent years under Copley's ownership. As almost every newspaper in America has been losing circulation over the last decade, the Rep has had one circulation increase after another. It's clearly been a love affair between a city and two guys who have spent their full careers at the only paper they have ever worked for.
For anyone who knows Rick or cares about journalism or Canton, Rick's column this weekend is a must read.
A Lively Academic Discussion
One of the most successful events for the still relatively new College of Communication and Information has been the Distinguished Scholar Series. Dr. Paul Haridakis of Communication Studies kicked off the second year of the series Dec. 1 with a presentation centered on his research on government control of access to information.
Once again the presentation touched off a interesting discussion with remarks and questions from, among others, fellow lawyer Tim Smith of Journalism and Mass Communication; Fran Collins, also of JMC, whose research interests include commercial speech; Dean Jim Gaudino and Stan Wearden of Com Studies. Rick Rubin and Mary Stansbury did a nice job of tying the access issue to librarians' concerns.
There will be two more presentations in the spring semester: Ken O'Grady, Visual Communication Design, on Feb. 2, and Mary Stansbury, Library and Information Systems, on March 2. I'll have details on their presentations later.
Incidentally Ken has recently had a book published: A Designer's Research Manual: Succeed in Design by Knowing Your Clients and What They Really Need by Rockport Publishers. The book was written with Jenn Visocky O'Grady. As a one-time layout and design teacher, I wish I had had the book years ago. It's an easy-to-use manual that relates basic research principles to problems in design.
The Crain's Cleveland Business Web site started a posting in late October thusly, "Buyouts at The Plain Dealer, the sale and gutting of the Akron Beacon Journal, and now this: The San Diego-based parent company of The Repository in Canton, The Independent in Massillon and The Times-Reporter in New Philadelphia has put the papers up for sale."
The changes have affected many of the friends and alumni of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication but perhaps none more than the news that general manager Mike Hanke and special projects editor Rick Senften are taking buyouts from the Rep and will be ending their careers at the end of the month. The lessened payroll is supposed to make the Rep more attractive to buyers. I'm not sure how a paper without Mike and Rick can be more attractive to anyone.
Mike and Rick, both Kent State journalism alums, have meant so much to the school and to Canton. In October the two appeared in Jeff Fruit's media management class; I set in on the class just to learn from two experts. Interestingly one theme that evening was how well the Rep had been doing in recent years under Copley's ownership. As almost every newspaper in America has been losing circulation over the last decade, the Rep has had one circulation increase after another. It's clearly been a love affair between a city and two guys who have spent their full careers at the only paper they have ever worked for.
For anyone who knows Rick or cares about journalism or Canton, Rick's column this weekend is a must read.
A Lively Academic Discussion
One of the most successful events for the still relatively new College of Communication and Information has been the Distinguished Scholar Series. Dr. Paul Haridakis of Communication Studies kicked off the second year of the series Dec. 1 with a presentation centered on his research on government control of access to information.
Once again the presentation touched off a interesting discussion with remarks and questions from, among others, fellow lawyer Tim Smith of Journalism and Mass Communication; Fran Collins, also of JMC, whose research interests include commercial speech; Dean Jim Gaudino and Stan Wearden of Com Studies. Rick Rubin and Mary Stansbury did a nice job of tying the access issue to librarians' concerns.
There will be two more presentations in the spring semester: Ken O'Grady, Visual Communication Design, on Feb. 2, and Mary Stansbury, Library and Information Systems, on March 2. I'll have details on their presentations later.
Incidentally Ken has recently had a book published: A Designer's Research Manual: Succeed in Design by Knowing Your Clients and What They Really Need by Rockport Publishers. The book was written with Jenn Visocky O'Grady. As a one-time layout and design teacher, I wish I had had the book years ago. It's an easy-to-use manual that relates basic research principles to problems in design.
posted by Joe at 10:15 AM
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