Complete Story
07/30/2018
Roundtable audience gets insights into future of the Akron Beacon Journal/Ohio.com
The Akron Beacon Journal/Ohio.com will retain an independent editorial voice as the paper and its website evolve in the community, say the paper’s publisher and a top executive from new owner GateHouse Media.
Publisher Bill Albrecht and Brad Harmon, Dispatch Media Group president and publisher and GateHouse Ohio president, were peppered with questions as the guest speakers Thursday before more than 300 people at the monthly Akron Roundtable at the University of Akron’s Quaker Station.
People wanted to know, among other things, how the Beacon Journal will change under its new owner as well as how GateHouse itself operates.
The luncheon program began with Albrecht and Harmon answering questions from moderator David Hunter, a Roundtable director, and ended with the two responding to questions submitted by the audience.
The Beacon Journal will maintain its editorial independence, Albrecht and Harmon said.
Albrecht said editorial page decisions will be made locally. “It has not ever been — nor do I ever see it being — directed from a corporate level,” he said.
“Each community is unique,” Harmon said. “There is no dictation whatsoever from corporate on what to do with the editorial page. It’s all local.”
