Akron Beacon Journal

The Akron Beacon Journal is a four-time Pulitzer Prize-winning morning newspaper in Akron, Ohio, United States, and published by Black Press. It is the sole daily newspaper in Akron and is distributed throughout Northeast Ohio. The paper places a strong emphasis on local news and business. Industries historically tied to the area are also well-covered, such as rubber and tire production.

History

The paper was founded when the Summit Beacon and Akron Evening Journal merged in 1897. The Summit Beacon had been published since 1839 and the Akron Evening Journal had since 1897. In 1903 the Beacon Journal was purchased by Charles Landon Knight. His son John S. Knight inherited the paper, in 1933, on Charles' death. The Beacon Journal under Knight was the original and flagship newspaper of Knight Newspaper Company, later called Knight Ridder.

Mark Cohen became publisher in the Fall of 2013 following interim publisher Mark Ficarra. Cohen replaced Andrea Mathewson, who replaced Ed Moss.

Journal

A journal (through French from Latin diurnalis, daily) has several related meanings:

The word "journalist", for one whose business is writing for the public press and nowadays also other media, has been in use since the end of the 17th century.

Public journal

A public journal is a record of day-by-day events in a parliament or congress. It is also called minutes or records.

Business and accounting

The term "journal" is also used in business:

Beacon

A beacon is an intentionally conspicuous device designed to attract attention to a specific location.

Beacons can also be combined with semaphoric or other indicators to provide important information, such as the status of an airport, by the colour and rotational pattern of its airport beacon, or of pending weather as indicated on a weather beacon mounted at the top of a tall building or similar site. When used in such fashion, beacons can be considered a form of optical telegraphy.

For navigation

Beacons help guide navigators to their destinations. Types of navigational beacons include radar reflectors, radio beacons, sonic and visual signals. Visual beacons range from small, single-pile structures to large lighthouses or light stations and can be located on land or on water. Lighted beacons are called lights; unlighted beacons are called daybeacons.

For defensive communications

Classically, beacons were fires lit at well-known locations on hills or high places, used either as lighthouses for navigation at sea, or for signalling over land that enemy troops were approaching, in order to alert defenses. As signals, beacons are an ancient form of optical telegraphy, and were part of a relay league.

Akron, Ohio

Akron /ˈækrən/ is the fifth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Summit County. It is in the Great Lakes region approximately 39 miles (63 km) south of Lake Erie along the Little Cuyahoga River. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 199,110. The Akron, OH Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) covers Summit and Portage counties, and in 2010 had a population of 703,200. Akron is also part of the larger Cleveland-Akron-Canton, OH Combined Statistical Area, which in 2010 had a population of 3,515,646.

Akron was co-founded in December 1825 when suggested by Paul Williams to Simon Perkins. In 1833, "South" was temporarily added to the name when Eliakim Crosby settled a bordering North Akron. After Summit County formed from portions of Portage, Medina, and Stark counties in 1840, Akron succeeded Cuyahoga Falls as county seat a year later. The Akron School Law of 1847 created the K-12 system. In 1851, Sojourner Truth attended a convention and extemporaneously delivered the original "Ain't I a Woman?" speech. During the Civil War, Ferdinand Schumacher supplied the Union Army with oats produced by his mill along the Ohio Canal. Between the 1870s and World War I, numerous churches across the nation were built using the Akron Plan.