The new morning Star-Bulletin in tabloid format, which they refer to as “compact”, arrived in our driveway before 5:30 this morning. It’s delivered in one section with internal headers pointing out what would previously have been separately printed sections.
Page 1. There’s the Star-Bulletin’s name across the top of the page, and an equal size advertisement balancing it across the bottom of the page. In between, not news but graphics promising news somewhere in side.
Page 2. Full page Bank of Hawaii ad. Perhaps this is a special ad space for this special edition. Time will tell.
Page 3. A full page consisting of a letter from Publisher Dennis Francis and Editor Frank Bridewater and graphic representations of the new sections.
Page 4. A full page ad for the Hale Koa Hotel.
Page 5. The S-B masthead, a single letter to the editor with a jump to page 21, an AP Easter photo, small table of contents, a list of top stories on Starbulletin.com, one comic strip with jump to more on page 46, and a “people” item with another jump to page 42.
Page 6. Another page of what appear to be ads.
Page 7. First local news. Story about woman who dies in shooting. The page is more than half filled with two photos and a map. The story itself is quite brief, about 15 column inches. But the columns are left unjustified, with many lines quite short. Previously the S-B used justified type. The look now is less formal, more open, but also results in fewer words.
The column on the far right of the page includes a “Local” logo on the top, a short news item, and then about 1/4 left blank.
Page 8. The “Ocean Watch” column takes the left hand third of the page, with a non-bylined story on the Obama First Puppy, complete with large graphics, fills out the page.
Page 9. A graphic across the top of the page gives a USA-Today type of single story summary of each island or, in the case of Hawaii, separate items for east and west sides. The rest of the page are brief “newswatch” items.
Page 10. Full page ad for Mobi PCS.
Page 11. Full page house ad for the annual S-B/MidWeek readers poll.
This goes on for 72 pages.
I’m already tired and I haven’t gotten hardly any news. And no news is bad news.
The design puts a huge stress on folks doing graphics and photos.
I hope this isn’t really the shape of things to come.
A reader responded to yesterday’s comment about delivery of the New York Times.
“I think that non-daily delivery of the NYTimes by the no-afternoon S-B is worth a mention. I suspect many, like us, will cancel daily subscriptions rather than get day-late paper.”
1] No Need “Day Late”? Migrate [as in move your subscription to another medium]!… I know it’s not the same as getting the print edition, but Kindle readers can get today’s New York Times wirelessly downloaded to their Kindles all for $13.99 a month [compare with around $29 for news print edition]
Or the Washington Post for $9.99 >
2] Another Kindle side note > A recent independent study suggested that the NY Times could save money on printing and delivery by giving each subscriber a Kindle and distributing its “newspaper” electronically.
3] Just so this isn’t an all Kindle note – the Hearst Corp is developing a tabloid sized reader >
So–does anyone here have a 2nd generation Kindle that I would observe in action?
Today and Wednesday are recess days at the Legislature, as the countdown to Thursday’s second crossover deadline continues. During the last month, the House has been considering bills that were passed by the Senate, while the Senate pondered House bills. Any bills that are going to stay alive have to be approved before Thursday’s deadline. Then it’s a two-week sprint as joint House-Senate conference committees try to reach agreement between conflicting versions of bills before the April 30 final decking deadline.
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The New York Times Reader is a downloadable program for your laptop (or in my case, my Tablet PC). I used it extensively before they started charging a monthly fee. I could read from the complete NY Times while waiting to testify at the Legislature.
It’s only $14.95 a month now, and holds a 7-day archive, which is a lot of material. Interestingly, the tablet PC doesn’t weigh any more with a week of the Times in it, and is more comfortable to read than a Kindle for my eyes. It syncs once over the Internet and then you can carry it around with you, something like having a Kindle.
The Reader is a nice piece of software which I thought would be a model for other newspapers. It’s kind of publishing, only without paper or layout editors. It also has ads that can’t be easily blocked, so the advertising model might have an extended lifetime, at least until those ads are hacked.
The “new” SB seems to have abandoned it’s Opinions and Editorials department. The old one was geared for adults, this version is for children. The new editor also was spending too much time congratulating herself instead of taking care of business. There are fact typos in the editorial, they’ve dumped Maureen Dowd in favor of Bloomberg’s William Pesek (cutting him by more than half), there are fewer letters to the editor, they repeat an Akaka item from the day before and the main story is a PR puff piece. Not a snazzy beginning.
Ian, ragged-right columns do not use less words than justified columns. The air on the right comes from better word spacing.
Freekah maybe if you actually read the newspaper you would’ve been more satisfied with the experience.
I don’t see how a story on a bar being accused of kickstarting murder and drug dealing can be labeled as a “PR puff piece.”
I did something crazy, I looked at facts. I see all these people here that must know about the newspaper business. I’m just a newspaper reader. Who got a free Honolulu Starbulletin today and found this site on twitter.
I’ve been hearing on the internet about how newspapers are trying to cut expenses. I guess their biggest expense is paper. I got out our office postal scale and weighed both newspapers.
Today’s Honolulu Advertiser was 3.7 oz vs the Honolulu Starbulletin was 5.9 oz. I also did a page count. The Honolulu Advertiser was 32 pages vs the Honolulu Starbulletin 72 pages.
I know, I know the Honolulu Starbulletin is a different size, so I folded the Honolulu Advertiser in half and counted it as 64 pages.
So in my mind, the Honolulu Starbulletin had ten more pages. Which is 15.6% more. Also if you lay Honolulu Advertiser folded in half on the Honolulu Starbulletin it is 20% smaller.
I’m not mathematician, but that means you’re getting 35%-50% less with the Honolulu Advertiser
It’s 50% in weight 35% in volume. Guess that means the Honolulu Advertiser is using thinner paper or lighter ink.
Sugar Ray, I hope you don’t think that because the tabloid weighs more or has more pages than the Advertiser that there’s actually more in it? I mean, my read of the new S-B over the lunch hour left me with the impression that, as between the two, the S-B should be named the Advertiser, and not t’other way ’round.
Any bill that can be passed without amendments by the second house may be passed independent of the second crossover deadline, because this Thursday’s deadline applies to amended bills only.
I have a Gen 2 Kindle, but I don’t subscribe to the newspapers. The machine has a (crude) web browser, which is how I would read newspapers with it. Free that way… I mean the whole “download automagically” thing is neat, but I’m willing to make a few clicks and get the same info for nothing.
However, if you’re willing to start a trial subscription for me then you could check it out on my reader! (not that I get downtown or windward very often any more)
Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention that you could download an iPhone app that, so far as I know, gives it the functionality of a Kindle. Maybe you could try the NYT that way?
Certain sections of today’s SB seemed disorganized, especially the local news section. Tidbits of news are in easy-to-overlook areas of the page. I hope they have more locally produced content tomorrow, and improve their layout over the next few days.
Why were Sherman’s Lagoon, Dilbert, and FBOFW placed away from the main comics section? Way too easy to miss them. And FBOFW should’ve been in color.
Speaking of color, the SB still can’t align colors correctly.
The huge ads in the first few pages turned me off. At least have 1.5 pages of news to draw me further into the paper.
Lastly, amusing to read that the online SB deleted negative comments in the article (“Building a better newspaper for you”) that asked for reader feedback about the new layout.
Ian. hilarious SB review. Still. As Burl sez. Buy them both. SB will work out the kinks… Re; Kindle. this thing gets continual top rankings in national “worst new gadgets-don’t waste yer moola on it” articles.
does anyone here have a 2nd generation Kindle that I would observe in action?
http://tinyurl.com/dmgejh