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When Editor Bruce
Winges asked the group attending the September 20 meeting at Papa Joe’s
Restaurant, “How many of you read the Akron Beacon Journal?’’, he found he
was facing a room full of die-hard Beacon supporters. He assured the
audience that the Beacon is alive and well. As the leader of the transition
team that trimmed and reorganized the paper to its present form, he said the
circulation has remained constant and confirms the importance of the paper’s
focus on local news stories.
The major emphasis
in the development of the Beacon is the expansion of
Ohio.Com, the Internet service, to attract more readers. Presently
it is 17% of the Beacon’s readership. The people attracted to this form of
news are young workers who read while they are at work between 8 a.m. and 6
p.m. They do not connect during the week-ends or evenings.
However, this is the market of the
future.
During the question period, Mr. Winges
was urged to make the ink darker and the print larger on the comic pages,
make an effort to weekly summarize legislative actions in Columbus and
Washington so the public is aware of current issues being considered, and
continue the balance of views expressed on the editorial page by the various
syndicated writers.
Mr. Winges’ Southern charm and very
approachable personality caused many people to surround him after the
meeting and continue to emphasize Akron’s need for a local newspaper and our
support of the Akron Beacon Journal.
Jean Questel, Government Comm. Chmn.
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