The Freekin' Ur'nal's New Ownership

[Z.I.P.]

Apparently it came as a surprise to some that the new owner of the Akron daily newspaper is the Black Group of Western Canada. I had a suspicion they might be interested in adding the Beacon to their growing stable of papers, the largest of which HAD been the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, O'ahu's #2 daily paper.The Black Group bought the Star-Bulletin several years ago when it was on the brink of bankruptcy. Actually the paper was part of a joint-ownership agreement with the other daily on O'ahu, the Honolulu Advertiser, so when the owners decided to throw the Star Bulletin overboard and concentrate on the Advertiser there was concern (particularly among SB employees!) that Honolulu would join the list of one-paper towns. A group of "concerned citizens" organized to find a suitor for the Bulletin and eventually, just before the deadline, the small Canadian syndicate stepped forward.As you may have seen, the daily and Sunday runs of the Beacon are more than twice as large as the Bulletin, which had been its largest subscription paper PBJ (pre-Beacon Journal). This hasn't however stopped the SB from blanketing our one-university state with more college athletics coverage than BJ readers (are there any still out there?) could dream of. Does the BJ still have one guy, Whatsisname to cover all UA sports? The Star Bulletin, in attempting (rarely successfully) to compete with the larger Advertiser rarely lets a day go by without multiple articles about college sports at the University of Hawaii-Manoa. The college football season coverage generally begins the day the previous season ends. Check out www.starbulletin.com and see how many articles you can find on June Jones' pass-happy footballers. And they don't hesitate to cover the other sports, with separate reporters assigned to men's hoops, baseball, and women's sports. They also regularly report on sports like water polo, track and field (I swear there have been daily reports in our media on the UH Wahine track athlete going to the NCAA championships in the heptathlon -- despite the fact she's rated something like #17 nationally); etcetera.One article I read at Ohio.com, or maybe it was at Starbulletin.com (where the story lead on the Business page) today mentioned the possibility of a Midwest-MidPacific alliance with the papers sharing resources somehow. Let's see, you have Brian Windhorst and Terry Pluto (or is it the next closer planet?). We have a bunch of mangoes falling on the ground. Naaahhh -- that's not an even trade. Some kids walk by and pick up the mangoes to throw at each other. So they have a better use. Hey -- jus' kiddin' Whatsurename, ol' buddy! Here's hopin' for more coverage of the Zips in your news -- and a new alliance for the UA Aloha Section Alumni. Gotta get back to my job at the pineapple factory now. Bumbye!

[ZipAlumn]

Hopefully the local coverage, ESPECIALLY THE LOCAL COLLEGE SPORTS COVERAGE, improves with the new ownership. I don't plan on holding my breath, but hope does spring eternal.

[zipboy]

You would think that more local coverage would only help their subsription rate. I doubt many people would sit there and say wow another article about Akron Zips athletics, I am going to cancel my subscription. They have a unique opportunity right now. With new ownership coming in if changes are made, they will be noticed and appreciated. Even if the Beacon turned into covering the Zips everyday, the perception would still have been that they are the same old paper. Their shoddy coverage has gone on for so long that it would take a lot to change that perception. They now get the opportunity. Thankfully I have this site, gozips.com, and Rasor's blog. That is all that I need. I hope the coverage improves more the fringe fan than for me.

[ZipAlumn]

Better sit down for this one ....... in Thursday's Beacon Journal I counted three - YES THREE - articles concerning the University of Akron. That must set some kind of record. :blink: :blink: :blink: :blink: