Burl Burlingame reports that "a couple of hundred" people attended Saturday's job fair, apparently considered a satisfactory turnout. He also says to expect a "major announcement" of some kind today, so stay tuned.I'm have to say that I'm fascinated by successful scams and frauds, and their perpetrators. I did another story last week on that recurring theme. People remain incredibly gullible, even in this information age. In fact, the depth of suspicion, ignorance, illogic (is that a word?), and other forms of old-fashioned know-nothingness out there in the various corners of the real world is staggering, as is the keen ability of some folks to take perceive this as a lucrative hunting ground and take advantage of it. It makes me despair sometimes about the ability of journalism to make any difference at all.
I updated the photo gallery yesterday, including a couple of photos of Friday's dramatic sunrise. Actually, much of my Sunday was spent in frustrating pursuit of cats , which left me with a long series of blurs to show for my efforts, along with just a handful of decent shots. Kind of like reporting. So it goes.
Looks like a slow Sunday with nothing new to report.I haven't heard whether yesterday's job fair was a success or not. It struck me later that none of the signs said "Star-Bulletin", and it must be because the name is still owned by Liberty Newspapers despite Black's future interest and signed deal.
And, after taking another look at the pictures of the newsroom-to-be, the upcoming move appears even more complicated. The problem is that our existing office furniture--desks, room dividers, etc., are going to be moved to the new location. But we'll be using it all here until the March 15 witching hour.
And, the next day, we'll somehow have to put out a paper from the new location. Computers and phones will obviously have to be installed, tested, and ready to go on Day 1. If this is going to work, I suppose there will have to be some kind of temporary setup, which will be replaced gradually as the old furniture is dismantled, cleaned, and moved down the street.
But I'm also sure that this is one of the lesser hurdles to be surmounted in the next two months.
I spotted my first whales of the season this week. You can see them from our living room as they move along the coast. This was a low key sighting, just the telltale spouts and assorting splashing before these two whales dove and disappeared from view. Another of the benefits of "country" living.
I joined a small band of wanderers on a noontime mission to check out the new Star-Bulletin offices at Restaurant Row. We found other pilgrims on the same path. It's a confidence building experience that washes away any lingering doubts that perhaps this deal might, at the last minute, fall apart. This is a serious business space that's being built down the street, and a very serious amount of space at that. Click on the picture of the wanderers for several views. A worker on the second floor said that, despite appearances, the job should be done in two weeks.
Click Burl & Co. to proceed!
Setting up these photos took a bit longer than I thought, and so I missed my early a.m. deadline for posting today's update. So then came the message from George Steele at 5:52 a.m.:"ahem. your public is waiting...."Nothing like a little pressure to start the weekend.
We arrived home last night to extremely low water pressure. A call to the Board of Water Supply brought news that it's the result of some repair project. Unfortunately, it's still very low this morning. One neighbor said there wasn't enough pressure in his house to shower. Now that we're back from the morning walk, we'll try the shower test soon.
Not too many Friday's left between now and March 15. I suppose this means that the relief of the end of a work week is being supplanted by the increasing pressures of time evaporating.Gannett is wasting no time in their preparations for our departure. Members of an architectural team have been wandering through the newsroom with tape measures, notebooks, and cameras, gathering data for their plans for gutting this side of the building as soon as we vacate. If only we were as free to proceed with our planning. More of that great American, fair-play, level playing field concept.
I hear that planning for the revamp of the Advertiser is proceeding in high "need to know" secrecy, leaving their staffers guessing as much as we are about their next moves.
Meanwhile, signs are up at Restaurant Row announcing tomorrow's Star-Bulletin/Oahu Publishing job fair.
Bits of my week in photos...
I was feeling pretty down yesterday, trying to fight off the edge of some flu-like bug that's been circling for several days. As a result, I probably didn't pay much attention to the mood in the rest of the building. Things seemed calm but energized. The countdown is on and everyone knows it.There's "talk" that a longtime S-B reporter is being wooed by the Advertiser and is waiting to see if Black's Star-Bulletin will enter a bidding war. True or not, there's an undercurrent of resentment among those who are aware of the rumor, another layer in the increasingly complex newsroom mood.
And this was received Wednesday evening from another S-B reporter, another opening salvo in the brewing news war:
I had an experience about 10 minutes ago that was as bizarre as it was unpleasant. At home, I got a call from someone offering the Honolulu Advertiser's Sunday edition at 75 cents a week for 52 weeks. Naturally, I asked if the daily Bulletin could come with that. No, they said, they only offer the Sunday paper. Fearing the worst, I asked if I could get the morning Advertiser with the offer. Again, the voice said no, that this was a special offer. I said I was confused. He said he represented a company based in Arizona that has been contracted by the Honolulu Advertiser, effective January, to market the Sunday paper alone. I politely said no thank you. This just gets weirder as we go along.
Four circulation managers who deliver the Star-Bulletin signed up with David Black's new Star-Bulletin team and gave 2-weeks notice to Gannett's Hawaii Newspaper Agency on Monday afternoon. HNA's response: leave now and don't come back.Under the terms of its various legal agreements, including the JOA and the agreement to sell the Star-Bulletin to Black, Gannett is required to be even handed and continue to act in the best interests of the Star-Bulletin as well as it's Honolulu Advertiser. Since these circulation staffers have an obvious interest in continuing to distribute the Star-Bulletin, why would their final two weeks of work pose any sort of threat to HNA? It would certainly have been in the best interests of the Star-Bulletin. Instead, because of their abrupt termination, several hundred Bulletin's went undelivered.
I received an unsolicited email yesterday from someone handling advertising for a local company, who says from his own perspective that Gannett has tried to make life difficult for the Star-Bulletin for the last 2-1/2 years. He added:
I hope to meet you one day and tell you the story of the three mainland haoles who arrived on my doorstep from Gannett Corporation to tell me what it is I "want" in a newspaper. But that's a whole 'nother story.Good luck in the transition, and know that there are a lot of us rooting for you guys out here in the real world.
We survived an unexpected rush back to the vet earlier this week after Ms. Lizzie's patient initiated destitching, just days after she was spayed. Turned out that underlying her nibbling at the sutures was an infection, so she's now learning the joys of that pink antibiotic those of us who share homes with cats know so well.
The brief letter from Vicky Cayetano, the governor's wife, apologizing for the behavior of Gannett's Honolulu Advertiser was hand delivered to the Star-Bulletin Friday morning. Copies were left for at least five staffers who had toured the Governor's mansion in preparation for a story on plans to turn the building into a museum.It seems the Advertiser's story that morning on the museum plan appeared despite Cayetano's request that coverage be embargoed until after a morning press conference, and she felt the need to extend apologies to other media.
A copy of the letter was posted yesterday on the bulletin board in our newsroom.
Of course, apologies weren't really necessary since our coverage, including panorama views of the mansion's interior that give the viewer the sense of being in its expansive rooms, blew theirs away.
Current Star-Bulletin subscribers who receive the S-B six days a week and the Advertiser on Sunday, are reportedly getting letters from Gannett's Hawaii Newspaper Agency advising them that there will be separate bills from now on. But, they are told, they can still get just one bill by dumping the Star-Bulletin and shifting their subscription to the Advertiser. It doesn't appear that they are being offered the choice of dumping the Advertiser and signing up in advance for the Star-Bulletin's new Sunday edition. Fair's fair?
And some HNA staffers who would rather work for the Star-Bulletin are apparently worried about repercussions from Gannett if they show up at Saturday's "Job Fair" at Restaurant Row. I guess they fear "observers" from Gannett to be taking down names.
But according to ads placed in the American Journalism Review, job applications or other materials can be faxed to Black's transition team at (808) 545-4918. I guess that's one avenue for those really worried about appearing in person on Saturday, but I don't know what the "official" advice to job seekers is.
The sometimes famous Columbia Inn, home of those fabled potbellied reporters, wasn't the only thing to join the dust of history on Friday. Also bidding a hasty farewell was the web site maintained by Save Our Star-Bulletin (formerly found at www.savestarbulletin.org), which has maintained its own biting commentary on the events of the last 16 months.
The final entry included a letter from the group who originally filed suit against Gannett and Liberty Newspapers to keep the Star-Bulletin open:
We want to express our appreciation to the citizens of Hawaii who have supported the efforts of Save Our Star-Bulletin (SOS) to continue publication of two statewide daily newspapers. Special kudos to the thousands of citizens who signed the SOS petitions; the Oahu Neighborhood Boards; Gov. Benjamin J. Cayetano; Attorney General Earl Anzai; the Hawaii state Legislature; Mayors Jeremy Harris, James H. Apana, and Stephen K. Yamashiro; the Honolulu and Hawaii County Councils; the leaders of the Democratic and Republican parties; the Hawaii Newspaper Guild; the ILWU and other unions; and, of course, to the staff of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin who refused to give up in spite of the tremendous stress that they no doubt felt.Now it is up to all of us to continue to support the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. SOS will be vigilant in watching the actions of Gannett during the months leading up to March 15, 2001, the date of the actual transfer of ownership to Black Press, Ltd., so as to ensure that the people of our state will continue to have two statewide daily newspapers.
Richard Port, Alice Clay, Thomas P. Gill, Kekoa Kaapu, Jean King, Ah Jook Ku, A.Q. McElrath, David Eyre, Philip Mayer and Richard S. Miller.
Parts of the former site have been recycled by S-B staffer Burl Burlingame into a new site in which, Burl openly admits, "Objectivity has been jettisoned!" Check out Burl's version of the Honolulu Newspaper War.
It's early on a chilly Sunday morning in Kaaawa. The roosters are already crowing from somewhere nearby, although it's still dark outside. Lizzie is curled in my lap making quite a racket with her purring. She and Harry are both fine following their surgery. Perhaps I'll grab a photo or two later today to prove the point.A staffer on the sales side of our soon-to-be "sister" publication, MidWeek, offered this assessment of the changes we're all swept up in:
I'd have to say the reaction here is somewhat of a mixed bag. There are people here, as at Gannett, who have worked here their entire lives. So this is a mega-change for them. The possibility of relocating downtown will cause major upheaval in their lives.On the other hand, some of us, myself included, are tremendously excited about this change. Black's investment in state-of-the-art equipment, his overall plan, and his willingness to invest time and money in quality journalism in this market are a tremendous thing to be part of.
Black's reliance on this staff as his core group for the new company is presenting some assumable challenges, but none that we can't surmount.
We're very excited about the new level of competition in sales. We have an excellent staff. I've never seen a harder working group of folks who love what they're doing.
The Star-Bulletin's "Job Fair" is going ahead as scheduled next weekend, and hopefully there will be a lot of talent looking to sign on for the interesting times ahead.
And, still speaking of potbellied reporters, my friend Marnie sent along this image as well as her own suggested response to the Advertiser's little gibe:
"Here's my unsolicited solution: Take the requisite number of 16" throw pillows to work on Monday and require all reporters to stuff them under their shirts any time they will be walking the halls or otherwise come into the Advertiser's line of vision. Make up reasons for them to go to the Advertiser's side. Have a group of them, potbellied with pillows, go to the parking lot at its busiest time and do mock calisthenics, with Rick leading. Or stage a nice group photo of S-B reporters with pillows under their shirts and post it on the S-B front door. Mockery, my dear boy, is the key to freedom and self-respect."
A lot of newsroom commentary on Friday was sparked by the lead in Curtis Lum's story on the closing of the Columbia Inn which appeared in the morning's Advertiser. His story opened:It looked like old times at the Columbia Inn last night.There was Gene Kaneshiro greeting customers. Bea, widow of Columbia Inn co-founder Tosh Kaneshiro, was sitting among laughing customers. Pot-bellied news reporters were hoisting a few at the famed Roundtable.
Potbellied reporters, plural?
Apparently at the time Lum passed through Columbia Inn, the only reporters sitting at the Roundtable were Russ Lynch and Rick Daysog, and Rick was bouncing off the walls of our newsroom most of the day Friday complaining about the comment to anyone who would willingly listen or was not quick enough to escape.
Daysog is a bantam rooster of a guy, short (sorry, Rick, this part is true), aggressive, irritatingly cocky at times, and addicted to hours of daily tennis and basketball in inverse proportion to his height. Potbellied he is not.
I think Rick really enjoyed the opportunity for indignant protest, but there were a few folks less jovial in their protestations, who are convinced the offending descriptor was deliberately chosen by the Gannetteers across the hall as a deliberate gibe at our delicate sensibilities. Such are the state of relations between the two sides of the building early in this new year.
There was some talk yesterday that a deal has been struck on terms for the remaining transition period that will avoid the necessity of further litigation. We all hope that it's true.The activity around the news building is starting to remind me of one of those films where medieval rivals are preparing for battle. Opposing armies are spread out in adjacent fields where knights are jousting, warming up, or preparing weapons while squires scuttle around doing the real work that needs to be done, all the while banners fly, flags flutter, and an overall sense of serious yet playful purpose reigns in the weeks before battle.
And today marks the passing of the Columbia Inn, the landmark restaurant next door to our building that for decades was the gathering place for politicians, journalists, and other refugees from late night deal making. It's closing and the building scheduled for demolition. It merits a brief moment of silent reflection on "progress", and will probably be featured in today's Star-Bulletin.
The talk yesterday was all AJR. We learned early in the day that the American Journalism Review story, 'The Pulse of Paradise', had made its appearance online. I didn't have a chance to read it until later in the day, but others were smiling--beaming, I guess, even bubbling--after checking it out. Several people commented that we couldn't have written it more positively ourselves, and haven't. There was some speculation about how the story is likely to be playing across the hall, but no actual feedback that I heard.I spent the day with a background of worry after dropping our two "kittens", now some 5 months old, at our vet for spaying. Even after going through the same procedure many times before, there's still a niggle of worry. But we picked them up last evening, and both appear to be bouncing back just fine, thank you.
Another sign of the times. After the new high-tech security system was installed several years ago, our electronic "keys" worked pretty much anywhere in the building. However, S-B staffers report their recent discovery that the system has been refined. Our keys no longer unlock Advertiser doors, although the keys carried by Advertiser staffers still work on ours. I suppose that's Gannett's version of a level playing field.
The black humor in the newsroom yesterday (lower case "b", as opposed to Black humor, in reference to S-B owner-in-waiting David Black) flows from our vacation crunch. We will "earn" two and a half months of vacation and personal leave from Liberty Newspapers between now and March 15, but face a "take it or lose it" situation. Normally, that would not be a big problem, but in this critical period excessive vacation demands could weaken the paper and compound the already difficult transition tasks. No one seems to have a handle on how to approach the problem, and even the basic information on precisely how many days we're dealing with has so far been unavailable.Meanwhile, there was talk in our newsroom of unconfirmed reports that the Advertiser is filling some positions by bringing in staffers on temporary loan from other Gannett newspapers, with differing views expressed about what this would mean.
I can already hear the yowls from Gannett's side of the building about reporting "rumors" without fact checking. Once again, I'll explain up front: I'm reporting what's happening in our newsroom, and this rumor was the subject of many comments and discussions yesterday. Simple.
A quick check shows Gannett is currently advertising for an unspecified number of positions in Hawaii, with no mention of loaners or temporary assignments. Their current recruiting via Gannett's central job listing is for assistant business editor, business reporters. assistant city editors, news reporters with at least three years experience, copy editors, and editorial page writer.
In addition, they are seeking one or more retail sales managers, with this description: "To achieve budgeted sales goals working retail sales team through effective planning; implement sales strategies; effectively train, motivate and coach sales team; coordinate special sales efforts; assist in budgeting, analysis and report results; act as liaison with other departments when relevant to sales efforts. Apply to Employment/Training Specialist Linda Iverson."
No mention of the new competition or the newspaper war that's coming.
Now we're heading into the final 11 weeks of the JOA and this strange, exploitive, incestuous relationship with Gannett.Star-Bulletin staffers who maintain contact with folks across the hall at the Advertiser report their reporters have a matter of fact view of the upcoming newspaper war. They see it as inevitable that we will lose, and the Star-Bulletin will close, within a reasonably short period of time. It seems "obvious" to them, a natural outcome.
But I wonder how those hard-nosed corporate accountants in Virginia that Gannett is so famous for will react 18-months down the line. The Advertiser/Gannett union contracts will be expiring. The Star-Bulletin's printing, done on modern presses over at MidWeek, will have highlighted the need for Gannett to begin construction of its new print shop, previously described as a $50 million project. They'll be in the midst of multimillion dollar renovations of the news building.
They'll be looking at the increased personnel costs for the expanded Advertiser staff, higher costs for the added afternoon edition, and lower advertising rates and income due to the newly competitive environment. And they'll be reexamining the initial investment in the Advertiser, which was based in part on inflated real estate values during the "Japanese Bubble" period.
They'll still be dealing with the negative public perceptions brought about by heavy handed policies in the past, as well as well-publicized public relations disasters during the battle over the closure of the S-B.
And the bean counters will still want the 30 percent profit Gannett demands from its newspapers.
If Mr. Black's Star-Bulletin hasn't folded in 18-months--and we have no intention of doing so--where will Gannett's corporate hatchet swing? If I were working across the hall and looking forward, I wouldn't be quite so smug.
Yesterday started with another green flash at dawn. And as we left the beach and headed home, I grabbed this panorama of the view looking back towards the mountains. That's Kaaawa Elementary School in the foreground.
We spent new year's eve here at home with the cats, worrying and trying to minimize their reactions to Hawaii's tradition of greeting the new year with fireworks. It's always a very stressful time for anyone with animals. Some people give their pets tranquilizers--we could have used a few for ourselves. Having all the cats in at one time is a major undertaking. Only Silverman was more freaked by being kept inside than by the fireworks, so early in the evening I let him go. Then we had to manage the interactions--Lindsey and Hiwa went into their own rooms, Kili had to find a good hiding place, Leo kept picking on Miki and they had to be separated, the kittens seemed to ignore it all, and we opened another bottle of wine.
This year is certain to be better than the last two for those of us at the Star-Bulletin.
But not everyone is glad that the Star-Bulletin has survived.
The United Public Workers, AFSCME Local 646, AFL-CIO, "supports efforts to bury the Pilau Bulletin," according to the report of the union's recent state convention as reported in their monthly newsletter. For mainland readers, "pilau" is a Hawaiian word meaning rotten, spoiled, stench.
Seven pages of the union's December newsletter are taken up with an attack on the Star-Bulletin, including the lengthy text of a resolution passed at the convention which points to news coverage they say was anti-labor.
Conspicuously missing from the list of offending articles was any mention of my series in 1998-99 on the abuse of power and misuse of union resources by UPW state director Gary Rodrigues.
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