Oahu Publications has released the list of Advertiser newsroom employees who will have jobs at the new Honolulu Star-Advertiser.
Here’s the list as circulated in an email from S-B editor Frank Bridgewater:
To: All
From: Frank
I am pleased to be able to announce that the following journalists from The Advertiser will be joining us as we embark on our new life as the Honolulu Star-Advertiser:
CITY DESK
Editor: Marsha McFadden
ACE: Dan Woods
Reporters
William Cole
Rob Perez
Derrick DePledge
Dan Nakaso
Mary Vorsino
Michael Tsai
Columnist
Lee Cataluna
BUSINESS
Editor: David Butts
Reporters
Andrew Gomes
Alan Yonan
Sean Hao
EDITORIAL
Deputy: Stephen Downes
Writer: Vicky Viotti
SPORTS
Deputy: Curtis Murayama
Reporters
Steven Tsai
Ann Miller
PAGE DESIGNER
Matt Schick
PHOTO
Bruce Asato
UNIVERSAL DESK
John Bender
Martha Hernandez
Joe Guinto
FEATURES
Editor: Christie Wilson
TGIF editor: Elizabeth Kieszkowski
Film/TV reporter: Mike Gordon
There are stories in today’s Honolulu Advertiser by Rick Daysog, perhaps his last for the newspaper, and by Erika Engle in the Star-Bulletin.
Daysog’s story provides much more context. The newsroom of the merged newspaper will have substantially more employees than the current Star-Bulletin, but fewer than the Advertiser. Daysog reports more than 400 people will be out of work on Monday.
Engle’s story reflects the difference in mood between the two newsrooms. While the Advertiser is in the final countdown of a newspaper deathwatch, Engle says S-B staffers are happily heading into this next phase.
Engle does slip in that the new Star-Advertiser will return to a broadsheet format, abandoning the “compact” tabloid look, although no other details are forthcoming.
Back at the Advertiser, while most reporters are preparing for unemployment while getting constantly changing information about health coverage and severance, senior managers have been allowed to walk off with their company computers and iPhones, although not all did so. I’m told at least one was spotted loading an office printer into a car. I wonder what happens if reporters try a similar move? Let me guess.
And art work that once graced the 3rd floor management offices has been shipped off to Guam, former home of the Advertiser’s last Gannett publisher, Lee Webber. I guess it wasn’t part of the buyout deal?
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I was an Advertiser delivery boy on Maui as a kid. Thats when I figured out the conservative/liberal thing reading papers early in the morning and when I could read the Star-Bulletin when I could. I always thought the Star-Bulletin had a better comics page. This was 1958 to 1965.
Anyway I really think everybody being laid off should get together and start an on line news effort.
And let the right wing shills start an “new” advertiser. They will dump a bunch of money into it and fail… The right are not true journalists they have no compassion. A true journalist looks out for the underdog, not the fat cats.
Be proud of the response comments Ian, you are somebody, that’s for sure.
Oh good god you bunch of naive goofs! Every piece of equipment with any value has been inventoried months ago. The company knows who has what…..of course. When you pick up your last check you must present each item that was issued to you or no final checky….it’s that simple. What a bunch of negative bitchy souls. The SB actually hired more “names” than anyone expected and you all know it. Whine all you want. It’s over.
Advertiser management has spoken.
Well, there’s been an awful lot of bitchiness on show here, it’s hard to say who the “naive goofs” might be.
I would agree that OPI hired more than most people expected. But I don’t know what the reference to “whining” might be about. Is it all our tributes to the pros left on the sidelines? Is that “whining”?
Downstairs, staff is prepping for the “No Boo-hoos, Just Pupus” food fest. We’re not whiners, but we do chow down.
You couldn’t know less about that which you speak.
While I blog for the love of things… I wonder about those who got paid to “blog”.
Is this new venture going to have “Paid Bloggers” and if so… where do I apply?
There weren’t many who got paid to blog beyond their normal salaries, and those that did were generally employees who had so much cachet that it would have been a significant loss to the paper’s web audience … or embarrassing to let them go.
There were very few bloggers that were paid beyond their normal wage, those that were paid generally were current employees that had so much audience that they were able to negotiate additional pay, or former employees that had so much cachet that it was embarrassing to let them take their blogs elsewhere.
Well, it’s not news around here, but yes.
————–
When I posted that above, it was meant in response to Burl asking about Webber going to Guam. That’s not news. Dooley will be missed, as well as all those not picked up, including Mr. Wiles who commented some time back.
I would concur with the loss of all the folks mentioned here but not yet acknowledged are more than a few others.
Chief among them are Robbie Dingeman, one of the hardest-working people I know and who knows the inner workings on so many beats; that youthful ball of energy known as Loren Moreno, the crusty and extremely knowledgeable David Waite, the sometimes maternal sometimes tough-as-nails Suzanne Roig and Mr. Quiet and Efficient Like An Air Conditioner Curtis Lum.
Oh yes, and also longtime night editor Andy Yamaguchi, calm and steady in the face of so many storms. How many times has he stopped reporters from chewing the heads off other editors?
That’s just on the city/business side. There’s a lot of blood on the floor in other departments including our very talented and award-winning sports, photo, copy and online department.
Let’s focus on what’s really important today, folks, the loss of a dedicated staff.
I wish my many friends on both sides well as they embark on the new Star-Advertiser but yeah, I also mourn the loss of the many who won’t.
Damon, although I did two blogs for The Advertiser, they were for love and to show my support for getting the paper immersed into new media as possible. I think it backfired. I quit doing my blogs about two months ago, although I still get releases and emails from those who want me to cover issues for East Oahu. It was taking too much of my time, and I owe as much of my brain cells to HMSA, the employer who issues my paycheck every two weeks.
I only knew of one or two people who were paid to blog. Others used their blogs to build a stable of paying clientelle. Gotta give credit to those who figured out how to turn a blog into a buck. I’m one of those listed on Ian’s blogroll. My prose doesn’t convert into money, but, the hits warm my heart, LOL.
Gordon, well said and well done.
From time to time the Advertiser drove me crazy with pig headed editorials or reporters who got it wrong, but the iron test was that each morning it was the paper I read first and I was more than a little annoyed if it didn’t show up.
So thank you to the folks who made the Advertiser. It was a good paper. Hawaii will come to regret its passing.
I miss Deborah Booker’s photos as she consistently produced great photos of people, their faces, their expressions, their spirits. I hope she is in good form and enjoying another adventure in her photography career. What has become of her talent?