Born In Cincinnati, Scripps Networks Heads For The Hills: Ohio Newspaper Chain Spinoff Is Moving To Knoxville, Tenn.



Scripps Says Bam! To Cincy



CINCINNATI (TDB) -- The spin-off is a publicly traded corporation (SNI: NYSE) that is a powerhouse in lifestyle television.  Its success in cable broadcasting made Emeril a celebrity chef.  The stable includes HGTV, Travel Channel, Great American Country and DIY Network.  Now Scripps Network Interactive Inc. is switching off its downtown Cincinnati office tower for new headquarters digs in Knoxville.  Scripps Interactive separated from the newspaper chain in 2008 -- that legacy business, the E.W. Scripps Co., stays behind.  Here's the full text of the press release from Scripps Interactive. Some pertinent paragraphs:

"The decision to designate Knoxville as the company's headquarters coincides with the completion of the new 150,000-square-foot Scripps Networks operating facility in West Knoxville. Final touches on the new facility, a large part of which has been occupied since March, were completed this month


'Knoxville is where it all began and where the company's future is being charted,' said Kenneth W. Lowe, chairman and chief executive officer of Scripps Networks Interactive. 'We've come a long way since launching HGTV and our Knoxville operations have become increasingly important. Making Knoxville and Tennessee the focal point of our global operations is a logical step in the company's ongoing evolution.'


"About 850 of the company's 1,950 employees worldwide work in Knoxville where HGTV and DIY Network were created and continue to be based. The company's technical center, including satellite uplink operations, a control center for all of its television networks and a wide range of other administrative, business and creative functions are also based in Knoxville."

Cincinnati Weighs Legal Definition Of Family Member: By Marriage, Blood Relative, Or 'Legal Contract'

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Adopted family members are covered in specific language outside the "legal contract" category. Those two words -- and questions about their meaning and significance as social policy -- have appeared as City Council moves to enact a rental subsidy ordinance that will financially assist households with a disabled member. The measure defines what constitues a family. Some are wondering if it might open the door to recognition of civil unions or domestic partnerships, which are "legal contracts." Here's what Cincinnati says:

"The following definitions of family shall apply:
1. 2 or More Persons living together who are related by blood, marriage (including common-law marriages recognized under state law), adoption, or legal contract.
2. Disabled person.
3. Handicapped Person. Having a physical or mental impairment that (a) is expected to be of long continued and indefinite duration, (b) substantially impedes the person's ability to live independently, and (c) is of such a nature that such ability could be improved by more suitable housing conditions."

It is the clause "legal contract" in No. 1 that has made people wonder if a door is being opened to official recognition of civil unions and domestic partnerships. The wording in the clause seems to take in a guardianship -- a judicial appointment created through legal process and a court order. But the clause defining a family does not specifically say guardianship. It appears worded as if intended to cover broader territory. There is more information about civil unions here, and additional discussion here.

The city's definition of a "family" is available in a June 25 document (page 2) that has been posted on City Hall's e-gov portal. It does not say anything about same-sex couples or relationships, but the sentiment that a family can be created by some kind of "legal contract" other than marriage does seem to point toward a progressive and inclusive interpretation.

Snubbed By Feds: Cincinnati's $100 Million Underground Railroad Museum

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, a $100 million-plus facility built partially with federal and state funds, has failed to win inclusion as a site listed in the National Park Service's Network to Freedom. Congress created the Network To Freedom during the 1990s as a method of preserving historic sites, plus supporting important interpretive and educational programs about the Underground Railroad. Twenty-eight of 36 sites that applied for inclusion were approved last month during a meeting at Georgetown College in Kentucky, The Daily Bellwether has learned.

Diane Miller, a park service official who coordinates the Network to Freedom program, said the Freedom Center filed an application that fell short of details. The museum is on the Ohio River in downtown Cincinnati and is supposed to be a leading tourist attraction. So far, attendance has not lived up to expectations, and it has failed to stand on its own financially without infusions of government subsidies.

"It has to do with technical issues related to the application. It's not a sense that it will never get in. It's a sense it's just not quite, well, not yet. There are typically in any given round quite a lot that don't make it. Maybe next time.''

Miller said there are 203 historic sites on the list, along with 60 interpretive programs and 37 facilities -- which are museums or heritage centers, a classification that would have included the Freedom Center if it had made the cut. Miller said the Freedom Center can apply again in January.

Ohio's Top Roman Catholic Prelate: Word Is He's Preparing To Step Down

CINCINNATI (TDB) -- Archbishop Daniel E. Pilarczyk turns 73 on Sunday, leaving just two years before church rules force him to step down from the post as spiritual leader of more than a half million Roman Catholics in Southwest Ohio. He has begun making plans for the transition and has discussed, or considered, retiring early -- or serving out his term alongside a bishop coadjutor, according to church insiders. There is a sense that the possibility of a coadjutor has been on the front burner since June when Pilarczyk's No. 2 resigned due to ill health. The departure of 69-year-old Auxiliary Bishop Carl K. Moeddel due to deterioration from strokes and diabetes has some officials in the Vatican thinking deeply about a successor to Pilarczk, who has been in office for 25 years.

A coadjutor bishop is a co-equal and automatically becomes a senior clergy member's successor upon death, disability or retirement. The coadjutor would be appointed by the pope in Rome. Pilarczyk, a Dayton native, has suffered from health problems, but aides said he is in fairly strong condition for a man of his age and remains extremely mentally sharp. "He has his ups and downs, but right now he's in the ups," an aide told The Daily Bellwether Friday.

Cincinnati's archdiocese covers 19 counties with a population to 2.8 million. It has one of the highest Mass attendance rates in the United States, often vying with Milwaukee for that distinction. But there are only about 190 priests to serve some 220 parishes. Pilarczyk's years in office have been tarnished by the clergy-child abuse scandal that has roiled several other U.S. Roman Catholic dioceses. He had to enter a courtroom earlier this decade and plead the church guilty to a criminal charge involving failure to disclose records that Hamilton County prosecutors sought in connection with the scandal.