Going, going... gone!

DAVID GIFFELS,  the Beacon Journal's talented young columnist and author, has accepted a buyout and will join the English Department at the University of Akron, according to two  sources familiar with the imminent move.  Also leaving with a buyout is Keith McKnight,  longtime deputy metro editor and former top-of-the-line investigative reporter.  Two more daggers to the heart of the paper,  and the list grows.  None of us takes much pleasure in the erosion of the Fourth Estate.  Some of us who worked for newspapers when they were, eh,  newspapers are the lucky ones who looked forward to a day in the newsroom.  So this is not a time for schadenfreude.