The Hawaii Newspaper Guild is facing hard times with the Advertiser/Star-Bulletin deal sure to take a big bite out of its membership, which has already fallen 20% in recent years.

In the midst of this turmoil, Wayne Cahill, the guild’s administrative officer, is retiring on June 10.

Job ads to fill Cahill’s position generated no viable candidates, according to the guild’s web site, leading to preliminary discussions of merging the guild local with another local of its parent union, Communications Workers of America.

Meanwhile, the union’s executive committee has appointed Ernie Murphy as interim administrative officer.

Ernie has been with The Honolulu Advertiser for 23 years as a copy editor and has been active in the union organization. He currently is serving as local treasurer. He intends to take Guild leave initially, spending the month of May with Wayne learning the operation. Wayne has agreed to remain on retainer until our futures are settled.

And last week, the six unions that make up the Hawaii Newspaper and Printing Trades Council presented a series of proposals to the Advertiser, including a demand the company “immediately restore all wages and other concessions our members agreed to help the Advertiser stay in business.”

Council spokesperson Wayne Cahill reminded the Company representatives that, in good faith, the employees gave huge concessions with the understanding that the Advertiser would do everything possible to stay in business. Cahill said, “as far as the unions are concerned, all of our Contracts stay in force until Dec. 31, 2010, and we will do everything in our power to make sure Gannett takes care of the loyal hard working employees who continue to make the Advertiser successful.

More information is available in an April 1 Newspaper Guild bulletin.

On the Media last week featured a discussion of ethical issues in the Cleveland Plain Dealer’s decision to expose the identity of a local judge who had left a series of anonymous comments on the newspaper’s web site, some concerning cases in her courtroom. Interesting issues of internet privacy and news judgements.

And news buffs might also be interested in this account of the newspaper war between the SF Weekly and the San Francisco Bay Guardian.

Eli Sanders, writing in the Stranger, a Seattle weekly:

It’s a war straight out of the last century in its ruthlessness and its destructive potential, and it continues to escalate even as, all around them, the entire words-on-paper industry is in a state of collapse. They’re like dinosaurs, fighting over the rotting bones of a soon-to-be-extinct animal.

It’s a good read.

And Honolulu Weekly is losing its managing editor, Adrienne LaFrance, who is resigning effective May 5.

LaFrance, who also serves as secretary of SPJ’s Hawaii chapter and is Sunday news anchor for HPR, spoke at length about newspapers, journalism, and Honolulu Weekly in an Extinct Magazine interview (January 4, 2010).

Her recent Weekly piece, Rail Uncovered, reports on the content of the city’s Final Environmental Impact Statement on the proposed rail project.