Like I said I wasn't really thrilled either, but the goal was to make the tests pass reliably.
I also still think the best way is to stop creating a default journal at all. Keep tests isolated, let each test create the object(s) it needs and only provide stuff not-under-test via the superclass. If this were a bigger project I'd even get rid of the superclass & repeated Journal ceation code via JUnit rules (these allow reusable cross-cutting logic, to reduce duplication across tests!) or other means, but I didn't know how much you want to change things and/or how much is inherited legacy from HawtJournal.
Personally I don't care how they are written as long as they work repeatably correctly. Just untangling & duplicating gets us there fast.