A message received yesterday from the Hawaii Professional Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists announced that entries for their annual “Excellence in Journalism” competition will be submitted online, streamlining the process.
But the reason cited was what drew my attention–another unintended consequence of becoming a one-newspaper city. No participation by the state’s largest newspaper, the Star-Advertiser.
The contest was retooled after the board learned that the Honolulu Star-Advertiser would not be submitting entries next year. In previous contests, the Honolulu Advertiser, which was merged with the Star-Bulletin, and the Star-Bulletin accounted for nearly 45 percent of the entries.
I suppose it makes sense to a certain degree, because the old competition between the two Honolulu dailies is gone. On the other hand, maybe the new monopoly daily is avoiding a head-to-head comparison with the remaining competition. Check out the SPJ winners for 2009 and you’ll see a lot of other media competed directly with the Star-Bulletin and Advertiser. It’s not only neighbor island dailies. The Star-Advertiser is up against a lot of quality competition from non-daily publications and magazines in the “open” category as well.
Perhaps it’s an issue of money. The S-A recently withdrew as sponsor of the spelling bee, which certainly appears to be a money issue. Perhaps the decision to sit out the SPJ competition is really just a question of money as well.
Or perhaps they are going to submit entries to the national SPJ awards competition?
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Even though the Star-Advertiser won’t be submitting entries, as I understand the contest rules, individual reporters may choose to submit works on their own (if they pay the entry fee). I hope some of them do this.
Too bad about the SA dropping from the competition. It’s a great way to affirm the best efforts of the staff.
Win or lose, participation is one of the ways to see where one measures up in the industry. Perhaps it doesn’t matter now.
I’m not sure you’re right, Ian, about the “open” category. The areas where non-daily newspapers and others are allowed to compete against all comers are limited.
Last year, for example, as editor of the Weekly, I would have nominated Adrienne LaFrance’s “roll call” on the HB444 vote and Martha Cheng’s food writing generally against anything by anyone in either of those categories. But the rules didn’t allow the Weekly to compete in either spot news or in food writing with our peers in the daily world.
I wonder, this year, whether the daily’s decision has anything to do with the plain fact that Civil Beat would likely hold its own against the Star-Advertiser in almost every meaningful category in “open media.”
Last thought – still no dedicated food writing category? It’s one of the most popular beats in journalism right now.
I also hope individual reporters continue to enter their own work.
No Loss. SA is now reduced to accepting material from developers and their public relations consultants. There is no journalists left except Rob Perez.
Example:. SA can’t even smell or question Hawaii Reserves hiding behind the Brigham Young University in the EnvisionLaie development. Notice SA doesn’t use the word Hawaii Reserves any more?
How lame is that? Why should BYU-Hawaii develop a brand new community on 800 plus acres? BYU-Hawaii has over 200 acres adjacent to its own campus to expand.
I too hope that the SA’s local writers enter. But perhaps the reason that the SA itself bailed out is because the byline on the large majority of their articles is… Associated Press.
I wonder if it is possible for out of work Advertiser staffers to submit work they did while the Advertiser was still in business?
As an SPJ-Hawaii officer and a contest winner last year, I certainly hope individual staffers step up and enter. The entire industry benefits from increased competition.
As a former SB employee, I’m stunned. It can’t be the entry fees — Oahu Publications added several vice presidents with huge salaries and other compensation during the merge. And they’ve apparently got plenty of money to cover their top dogs’ bar tabs at Ruth’s Chris Steak House several days a week. “Meetings with clients,” dontcha know.
Contests such as this one are how staffers’ efforts get publicly recognized by readers and peers (when certain managers aren’t hogging all the plum assignments for themselves). There are so many who are dedicated to doing good work. And while the guys in the newsroom keep grinding away on little more than dedication and table scraps, the advertising department and others in the rarified air upstairs get catered parties just for showing up to work.
I don’t think this bodes well for the SA entering the national SPJ contest.
It might be embarrasing to them if awards were won by the reporters they failed to hire from the Advertiser or the ones they reitired (transitive verb) from the Star-Bulletin.
No comment needed other than the bare facts. The management of the SA believes they’re no longer competitive in the field of professional journalism.
Might be a money thing, due to the start-up. Star-Bulletin employees never entered many categories because of budget restraints, but we still managed to hold our own against the Advertiser’s dozens and dozens of entries.
This raises a great question: what is the current paid circulation of the Star-Advertiser? Has it dropped significantly since it began business after the merger of the two competing daily Honolulu newspapers? A drop in circulation since the merger would not be a surprise — the deterioration of the paper publishing business is not stopping with the recovery of the US economy.
Wonder how big the paid “circulation” is with Civil Beat too? It’s apparently a big secret. They seem to be pretty feisty about demanding access to court files and such after blowing into town and declaring themselves the real thing, but I guess the piousness about transparency only works one way. Hmmmmm.
http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=123&aid=194786
Guaranz-ball-barrenz the management decided to save a few bucks by not paying for journalists’ entries. “Hey, if they want awards, they can pay for their own entries!” LOL!