Diane Evans is back in syndication again

DelMio: It's about books, a new syndicated column and BJ types still at work

Diane Evans is back in syndication again, but that is not all she is doing. Unless you are a real book lover or frequent library user you may not have heard of DelMio–and that’s a shame.

Evans is now writing a weekly column on books that will run over the McClatchy Tribune newswire, which distributes to more than 400 newspapers worldwide. McClatchy, the firm that bought out Knight Ridder and then discarded the Beacon Journal, is amazingly now promoting the work of Diane and an outsstanding crew of former BJ types who are called journalist/producers on the DelMio site.

DelMio Is a Book Lover’s Ultimate Dream. DelMio takes book lovers on a dynamic multimedia exploration of best-selling fiction, nonfiction, leisure, business—virtually every category they’d find at the library. Now at a book’s conclusion, the journey no longer ends—it’s just beginning.

DelMio was formed in 2006 as a new media company that is a "merger" of the old-line newspaper business with the new multimedia capabilities.

Explaining the name DelMio
We get asked a lot: What is DelMio?
Well, the question should really be: Who is Mio?
Mio is a young girl who provided the inspiration, creativity and drive that created this site.

She is endlessly inquisitive.
She reads voraciously.
She writes.
She sings.
She plays piano.
She dances.
People are drawn to her
She is the light in any room.
She is also a memory. Mio was DelMio founder Diane Evans' cousin. They grew up a few blocks from each other in a quiet Akron neighborhood. Then Mio contracted a terrible disease and died at a very young age.
As we went around and around searching for a name, the story Diane told about Mio kept sticking in our heads. Finally, we said, let's just name it after someone who embodies all the qualities we want in this site.
And so...DelMio...A bit of Mi

It provides avid readers with a place to join like-minded people on "book explorations" that go beyond the written. pages.

DelMio is distributed through public libraries, as a service to their cardholder patrons. DelMio is also a valuable distribution channel for authors and publishers to expose their new books to influential of readers.

Diane Evans – Diane is president of DelMio.com and oversees the business and creative development. She spent 32 years with the former Knight Ridder Newspapers, including 11 years as a columnist. She wrote a "living well" column that was distributed weekly to nearly 500 newspapers by Knight Ridder Tribune syndicate.

Marcus May – Marcus serves as CEO of DelMio responsible for all day-to-day business operations. He is the founder of the new media company, Mindgrab Media, a partner company in DelMio.com.

Mike Needs – A longtime editor with the former Knight Ridder, Mike helped start the Akron Beacon Journal's Web site, www.Ohio.com, in 1995 and has been involved in numerous successful online efforts. He also served as Public Editor of the paper and developed innovative techniques for engaging reading audiences online. A graduate of Ohio State University, he worked as a reporter and editor at three newspapers before beginning his 25-year tenure in Akron. Mike is Editorial Director for DelMio.com.

Joe Paparone – Joe spent more than 20 years as a production manager for the former Knight Ridder, including as Director of Operations for the Macon (Ga.) Telegraph. While in Macon, Joe was training to become a publisher with Knight Ridder.

Chuck Bowen – An Ohio University J-School grad graduate of the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at Ohio University, Chuck has spent his career covering hobos, cockfights and the life science industry for newspapers and magazines. His work has appeared in Cleveland Magazine, Columbus Monthly, The Indianapolis Star, The New York Times and for The Associated Press and the Agence France-Presse.

Mary Ethridge - Mary spent 18 years at the Akron Beacon Journal, primarily as a business writer and a regular contributor to the paper’s book review page. Prior to that, she directed editorial projects for the University of Akron, taking the university’s alumni magazine from a simple tabloid to an award winning, full-color magazine. She has won numerous writing awards and holds a degree in English literature from Princeton University.

Candace Goforth – Candace is a senior-level writer and editor. She is a former reporter for the Cincinnati Enquirer and the Akron Beacon Journal and former associate editor of Cleveland Magazine, where she won the Cleveland Press Club’s Ohio Excellence in Journalism Award for managing and editing the magazine’s 25th anniversary issue. She holds a journalism degree from Kent State University.

Nancy Peacock – Nancy has written for numerous publications, including the BusinessWeek, Midwest Living, Cleveland Magazine and the Akron Beacon Journal. In addition, she has written eight books, including travel guides, fiction for middle-school children and biographies. She is a graduate of Ohio University.

Joan Rice – Joan is a veteran of the former Knight Ridder. She won many writing awards, and as an editor, she directed pop music coverage and produced an entertainment magazine. She also edited books, fashion and features pages and managed a Features Department copy desk staff. Joan is a graduate of the School of Journalism at Kent State University.

Jane Snow – Jane has received numerous national and state awards for food reporting, including two James Beard Awards. She is also a seven-time winner of the Ohio Nutrition Council’s Media Excellence Award for nutrition reporting. She has been nominated twice for the Pulitzer Prize, and her food section with the former Knight Ridder was named best in the country in its circulation category three times between 1999 and 2006. She is past president of the Association of Food Journalists.

Dave Wilson – Dave is a writer and multi-media creator who spent 18 years with the former Knight Ridder. He was an editor at the Akron Beacon Journal and at the Sun News in Myrtle Beach, S.C. He holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Ohio State University and is a member of PRSA.

Among advisers and consultants is Thomas Fladung -- Thom has been an adviser to DelMio, helping conceive and shape the development of the Web site. He is editor of the St. Paul Pioneer Press and former managing editor of the Detroit Free Press. Thom is a graduate of the University of Dayton.

Others are Michael Gallucci, q consultant in the hotel/hospitality industry; Sam Gibara, retired chairman and chief executive officer of Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co.; William V. Muse, former president of the University of Akron; ;Gary T. Salhany, a senior manager of Cohen & Co., a certified public accounting; and Timothy D. Smith, professor of the School of Journalism and Mass Communications at Kent State University

The audacity of hope. Since the release of Barack Obama's book, those words keep speaking to me. And I know why. It's because books stay with us, even when the pages aren't before us. That's the take-away. Books make us think more deeply, in ways that expand our minds, shape our thoughts and influence how we conduct our very lives. As the late novelist C.S. Lewis wrote, "We read to know we are not alone." Such knowledge, tha

t we are not alone, can call us to action.

This is the first of a new weekly column about books and authors and how they shape who we are. But first, a little history behind the column: It is a direct result of several of us from the former Knight Ridder Newspapers who hope for a new future, following the demise of our former employer. The McClatchy Co. bought Knight Ridder in 2006, and then sold some of its properties, including the Akron Beacon Journal, where I and others in our group spent long careers.

Moving over to the electronic media, we started a new interactive magazine called DelMio.com. The name itself has a story behind it: It's for a little girl named Mio, who was wonderfully smart and inspiring and who died at 8 years old. There is a page about her on our site. Suffice it to say Mio loved to read.

Our new online magazine is all about books and authors and includes multimedia features about the subjects, themes and places in current titles. We're also equipped to offer live Webcasts, allowing authors in a remote location to interact with audiences in just about any venue, such as schools and libraries.

We'll be nosing around libraries, reading circles and publishing houses quite a lot. This column will offer commentary on the interesting things we find, including inside issues within the publishing industry.

The concept for our magazine actually originated under Knight Ridder, which we had envisioned as our national distributor. Now we're working to develop distribution through the Web sites of public libraries around the country, as libraries offer digital services to their patrons.

Any endeavor of this scope is challenging, and especially so for journalists without experience in starting new businesses. We've come this far because of Akron itself, and all the support we received, both from a community economic development fund and from business executives who helped us.

Slowly, breaks came. We're grateful to two small public library systems in central Ohio - Gnadenhutten and Claymont - which became our first paid subscribers. We're fortunate for our working relationship with Kent State University's College of Communication and Information. And we're encouraged when influential players acknowledge us, such as last week, when we told our story before the library committee of the Association of American Publishers in New York.

Moving forward, we'll ask a lot of questions. The audacious hope is that out of the effort, we'll find some things of interest to share with readers.

ABOUT THE WRITER
Diane Evans is a former Knight Ridder columnist and is now president of DelMio.com, a new interactive online magazine on books for writers and readers. Readers may send her e-mail at diane.evans@delmio.com.