The Akron Beacon Journal is a morning newspaperinAkron, Ohio, United States. Owned by Gannett, it is the sole daily newspaper in Akron and is distributed throughout Northeast Ohio. The paper's coverage focuses on local news. The Beacon Journal has won four Pulitzer Prizes: in 1968, 1971, 1987 and 1994.[2]
The paper was founded with the 1897 merger of the Summit Beacon, first published in 1839, and the Akron Evening Journal, founded in 1896.[2] 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.
The McClatchy Company bought Knight Ridder in June 2006 with intentions of selling 12 Knight Ridder newspapers. On August 2, 2006, McClatchy sold the Beacon JournaltoBlack Press. In 2018, GateHouse Media bought the newspaper.[3]
On November 11, 2013, the Akron Beacon Journal printed its last paper in-house. It subsequently used the presses at The Repository in Canton, Ohio,[4] also owned by GateHouse. As of March 2019[update] it was using the presses at The Plain Dealer in Cleveland.[5]
Herman Fetzer: better known as "Jake Falstaff" to the Akron Beacon Journal, Akron Times and Cleveland Press readers, worked as suburban reporter for the Akron Times, where in 1920 he began his column Pippins and Cheese, taking its title and his pen name from William Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor. While working at the Akron Beacon Journal, his desk sat adjacent to that of writer Josephine van der Grift, columnist of Demi-Tasse and Mrs. Grundy.
