NSME Akron/Canton February 2022 Dinner

"Future of  Local Journalism in Akron" by Michael Shearer,  Editor of the Akron Beacon Journal and Regional Editor for Gannett’s USA TODAY Network in Northern Ohio                            

• Why local journalism matters
• Driving digital readership
• Changes coming to the ABJ
• Looking to the future

BIO

With 28 years of editing experience across Ohio, Michael Shearer currently serves as editor of the Akron Beacon Journal and regional editor for Gannett’s USA TODAY Network in Northern Ohio. He’s responsible for coordinating newsrooms in 11 markets beyond Akron, including Canton, Wooster, Kent, Mansfield, and more.

Shearer moved to northeast Ohio in 2017 to serve as regional editor for GateHouse Media, which acquired the Beacon Journal in 2018 and merged with Gannett in December 2019.

Shearer previously served as Executive Editor of the Media Network of Central Ohio, a group of 10 daily Gannett Co. media sites, from 2009 to 2016 while also serving as the top editor of The Advocate in Newark, Ohio, from 2000 to 2016.

A graduate of Ohio University with a bachelor’s degree in journalism, Shearer has won numerous awards for editorial writing, including first place in 2018 from the Ohio APME. Shearer won a Gannett President’s Ring in 2009 for a news restructuring project.

He is married to Greta with two sons, Ryan, a recent college graduate working near Columbus, and Kyle, a third-year student at Penn State University. They reside in Kent. He enjoys playing golf, watching sports and has taken up running during the pandemic.