That didn’t take long!
Did you happen to catch this in Allison Schaefers’ story in yesterday’s Star-Bulletin regarding Sunday’s expected closing of the Advertiser deal?
Quoting Star-Bulletin publisher Dennis Francis:
The newspaper’s paid circulation would surpass the Advertiser’s official audit for the sixth-month period ended March 31, which recorded an average daily circulation of 110,000 and a Sunday circulation of 123,000, Francis said. He estimated the Star-Advertiser’s paid circulation would be 135,000 to 140,000 daily and 155,000 to 165,000 Sunday.
“Our penetration will reach over 50 percent of the households — that’s one of the highest levels in the country,” he said, adding that advertising rates would reflect the paper’s broader reach.
What? Raising ad rates right from the get-go?
Anyone who was around the Star-Bulletin a decade ago remembers David Black’s meetings with advertisers during which he warned that a Gannett monopoly would lead to higher advertising rates.
Now Black is operating from the same playbook, it seems.
And then there was this other Francis statement:
“While the Star-Advertiser’s newsroom won’t likely be the size of the current Advertiser newsroom, it will be the largest news gathering staff in the state of Hawaii by a long shot,” he said, adding that Oahu Publications will honor the Star-Bulletin’s contracts and will recall the union workers it laid off last year before adding other newsroom hires.
So, we learn: The combined newsroom will be smaller than the current Advertiser newsroom.
The Star-Bulletin has about 300 employees, including 75 in the newsroom. The Advertiser has 600 employees, including about 130 journalists.
Editor Mark Platte listed out the names of about 130 newsroom employees in his column on Sunday.
But another well informed source estimates the layoffs over the past couple of years has reduced the Advertiser newsroom closer to 110 employees.
SB says it has 85 news staff and that they’re planning to hire back the people it previously laid off. Conservatively, let’s say 5 people accept. With each Tiser hire costing close to $80K+ with salary and benefits, do we really think Black wants to hire on 20 staffers? Probably not.
If 10 get hired from the Advertiser I’ll be surprised.
I don’t know the ins and outs of these numbers, but you can be sure that the new Starvertiser won’t be overstaffed, and a lot of people are going to be looking for work.
That certainly makes it a very grim situation for the folks at the Advertiser. I’m really feeling bad for everyone as this deal goes through.
It’s a sad day for journalism, as there won’t be many Advertiser employees able to stay in Hawaii and stay on the right side of the journalism/public relations divide.
And I think we heard that “don’t worry, it will still be the largest news gathering staff” line when 70+ people were being laid off as the result of the KGMB-KHNL-KFVE consolidation. And that certainly resulted in a significant decrease in broadcast news reporting. This consolidation is likely to have a similar result.
Discover more from i L i n d
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
The old Hawaii Newspaper Agency automatically raised rates every year when they controlled both the Advertiser and the Star-Bulletin, and their only inhibition came with the onset of MidWeek. No one likes uncertainty, but we are in the midst of a technological revolution which has made printed newspapers unsustainable and may have a serious impact on printed books. For a consumer of national and international news these times are glorious: I can read newspaper web sites and other outlets all over the country and world. The challenge will be to create a similar diversity and depth of local news sources. Again, I have sympathy for people losing their jobs but none for the vestigial local newspaper institution. When the owners were flush from their monopoly, coverage was mediocre and in the remnant’s declining years, it has naturally been worse. Your own blog has offered far better investigative coverage than either paper has been able to muster, and you’re just one conscientious guy with curiosity and a four-decades-long memory. And you were able to achieve this despite frequent diversions to cats.
He’s also a guy that can afford to do essentially free journalism because 1) he has a lot of journalism experience working at the aforementioned newspaper institution and 2) he earned a good living and presumably is drawing a nice pension from that prior work.
His kind is a dying breed, people won’t be able to choose journalism as a career anymore, let alone be financially secure enough to do it for aloha later in life.
Newspapers need to be aware of the changing business of media delivery.
There will come a time when print loses its popularity and the internet becomes the medium of choice for the majority of readers and viewers.
Judging from shrinking circulations, that’s been happening steadily over the last several years. Cheaper, reliable and more convenient devices similar to the iPad, and the growth of broadband access, are quickly increasing the acceptance of enriched electronic content.
Too bad there will be nothing of value to read online, most news comes from print sources. When newsgathering institutions die, so will quality journalism.
People don’t seem to understand that the print newspaper is first and foremost an advertising product. Print advertising is still worlds more effective than online advertising; people seek out print ads while online ads are considered nuisances.
From that standpoint, the consolidation of OPI and the Advertiser may not have actually been inevitable or warranted — both the Advertiser and Midweek were profitable advertising products. The newsroom merger (which are happening “across the nation!”) was used as cover for the real dirty dealing — creating a print advertising monopoly.
This latest news article makes it all but transparent.
and none of those well-paying jobs are coming back
Who would have thought we would be longing for the days when Gannett ran the largest paper in town…
If, as shortsighted believes, that the author of this blog is surviving on his Star-Bulletin pension, well, I’ll style shortsighted’s hair for a year.
As for Mr. Francis’ comment about advertising rates, he did not say the Star-Advertiser would raise ad rates, but said the rates would reflect the paper’s reach. That is how ad rates are set. By reach. It probably means that they will be more than the Star-Bulletin charged, as they should be due to the reach being doubled. It also might mean that the rates might be slightly higher than the Advertiser’s due to the slight increase in reach.
It also means that advertising packages that include MidWeek and the online product will be offered and businesses will have to decide if the print option or options are more effective than other options. That’s the way this medium has always worked.
Well, looks like there’s no year of hair styling in Joe’s future.
Just for the record: My princely Star-Bulletin “retirement” brings in $346.35 per month.
-Ian
Raising ad rates is an interesting decision; reminiscent of starting a Sunday paper two weeks after the S-B became independent. The folks I’ve spoken with who make advertising decisions are highly resistant to higher rates and have reminded me that they have many more choices now. This will be interesting.