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Akron's Daily Miracle

Reporting the News in the Rubber City

Stuart Warner Deb Van Tassel Warner

9781629221946
244 pages
University of Akron Press
Overview

Akron's Daily Miracle begins with the death of the heir to John S. and James Knight's newspaper empire and ends with the demise of Knight Ridder Newspapers but also with a note about how the Knight spirit lives on in Akron and elsewhere. The Beacon Journal staff discuss how they came together to produce the Pulitzer Gold Medal-winning series A Question of Color; what it was like to walk behind Akron's Lebron James in the parade of champions in Cleveland; and the impact of being the largest city in American without a local TV station.

In between is a collection of essays from those who produced the news in the Rubber City, including international best-selling authors Thrity Umrigar and Regina Brett and popular columnists Bob Dyer and Stuart Warner, written to remind readers of the value of excellent local journalism.

Author Bio
Stuart Warner is best known in Akron for writing a local column called Warner’s Corner and for his solos at TubaChristmas. At the Akron Beacon Journal, he also served in several editing positions, including associate managing editor. He was part of the teams that won Pulitzers for covering the attempted takeover of Goodyear and race relations in Akron. As writing coach at the Cleveland Plain Dealer he edited four Pulitzer finalists, including Connie Schultz’s columns that won the Pulitzer for commentary.Deb Van Tassel Warner joined the Akron Beacon Journal in 1982 and held various editing positions, including supervising local coverage of the attempted takeover of Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. and as news editor for A Question of Color, two of the paper’s Pulitzer Prize winning initiatives. She also edited the award-winning series and book, Wheels of Fortune, about Akron’s rubber industry, and relaunched the newspaper’s popular Sunday Beacon Magazine. She joined The Plain Dealer in 1999 and oversaw award-winning coverage of the collapse and rebirth of Cleveland’s steel industry and edited the acclaimed special report “Beyond Rape” by Joanna Connors. I