Thursday, June 07, 2007

BREAKING: ABJ Publisher Resigns; First Woman Publisher Takes Over

Edward Moss, the Publisher of the Akron Beacon Journal, is leaving. Posted on Ohio.com this afternoon:

    A few minutes ago I met with the senior managers at our company and informed them that I have made a very difficult decision to leave the Beacon Journal,'' Moss wrote in an e-mail to the staff shortly after 2 p.m. ``An unsolicited business opportunity has come my way that I simply could not turn down."
    Moss did not say where he is going or whether he is leaving Akron. Today is his last day at the newspaper.
Taking over will be Andrea Matthewson, V.P. of Production and a BJ vet of 29 years.

As with the case of Mizzell Stewart, the first question is, "Did he jump or was he pushed." Indications are that the "business opportunity" is real, though we won't know more until later.

The second question is, "Assuming it's his idea, what does it say about the paper?" Well, it can't be good. He's been at the paper for all of ten months. It's possible Black brought him in to slice 'n' dice the newsroom under the assumption that he would be gone once the major bloodletting is done. If the "business opportunity" happens to be with Black Press, that will be a big clue about that.

The fact that his replacement is homegrown is, absent anything else, a hopeful sign that Black is done ripping the paper and ready for someone who is about the Beacon to lead the Beacon.

Photo from BJ Retirees. That post also has a good first comment with some hopeful sounding insight about Ms. Matthewson.

Again I say: NEWSPEOPLE! REACT TO ME!!

1 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yeah well Pho, if you ever need to get someone to say something nice about you at your funeral, invite the guys who post at the BJ Retire Blog. They're pretty forgiving.