Thursday, August 16, 2007

Ohio Print Media Watch Continues

We got this as a tip, but it's now confirmed in a story by Betty Lin-Fisher on the Akron Beacon Journal's own Ohio.com website.

The Beacon's Cleveland Browns beat writer, Patrick McManamon, moves to the sports columnist position vacated by 22 year ABJ veteran Terry Pluto. Pluto, as reported earlier this week, is moving his columnist keyboard to the Cleveland Plain Dealer at the end of this month.

That continues the Terry Pluto-related Shuffle.

Beacon Journal OSU beat writer Marla Ridenour moves from covering Jim Tressel and company in Columbus to covering Romeo Crennel and company at Berea, taking the Browns beat writer job.

That leaves the Buckeyes beat to...OMW reader George M. Thomas, who's currently doing general sportswriting for the paper, and a weekly sports media column we occasionally quote here.

We don't know if that column will continue when George jumps head-first into the Buckeyes football season.

Aside from our own Terry Pluto followup, the article linked here leads with the naming of Beacon Journal veteran Doug Oplinger, who's done everything from reporting to editing various sections of the paper, as the Beacon's new managing editor.

The article quotes Oplinger as calling the ABJ a ''fun place, full of artists, craftsmen and people who care about what they do.''

We can only hope, for the sake of the paper, that he truly believes that - even after the high-profile departures in the wake of the sale of the newspaper to Black Press...

4 comments:

Cliff said...

That's ironic that you now need a scorecard to keep track of sportswriters at the Beacon.

Mike Lupole said...

It's too bad that my favorite sports writer is heading to the PD since where I live (Wooster) we aren't able to get the PD delivered unless we choose the mail option which simply costs way too much.

WERC alum said...

Hi Mike;

You can log on to the PD and read the sports columns there.

There is no charge.

Mike Lupole said...

I guess I am a little 'old school' on the subject. I like holding the paper, etc. I subscribe to three papers and would gladly add the PD if they added home delivery here or dropped the price on mail delivery. Wooster is less than an hour from Cleveland, it's frustrating.