Good news from this morning’s Star-Advertiser: Kevin Dayton, former Hilo bureau chief and Capitol bureau chief for the Honolulu Advertiser is coming back to journalism. He’s been hired by the S-A to cover transportation issues, primarily rail.
He’s been working for Hawaii County Mayor Billy Kenoi, and his return to full-time journalism is certainly welcome.
I saw Kevin at the recent media symposium at UH Hilo.
I asked him: “Wouldn’t you like to have known then (as a reporter) what you know now (after a stint in politics)?”
Kevin’s a very good reporter. Now we’ll have a chance to see the benefits of this kind of movement.
It’s also an excellent sign that the S-A is again hiring at the top of the experience range instead of from the bottom. A response to the competition, perhaps? In any case, it’s good news for readers.
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Excellent news from the SA! – Kevin is Grade A. as such, I hope he’s ready for the daily blasts of “i hate rail; rail is evil; people should only have cars, trucks and buses”, no matter what the news is.
“It’s also an excellent sign that the S-A is again hiring at the top of the experience range instead of from the bottom. A response to the competition, perhaps?”
But Civil Beat does not hire from the top of the experience range either.
Also, CB does not really compete with the SA. It’s a very different readership and a very different business model and source of income.
Just because a company has a different business model and a different base does NOT mean there is simply no loss from competition. Craigslist, which is a major part of the modern demise of the newspaper publication industry, is a perfect example. All you need is something that affects the supply-demand formula, and there are consequences in prices, costs, revenues and profits.
That might be true in the case of craigslist — which almost everybody knows about or has used — but it is not necessarily true of Civil Beat.
How many people in your neighborhood have heard of CB? Half? One-third? One-quarter? One-tenth? Yet everyone has heard of the SA. It’s where the sports is, etc. The SA competes against television.
CB is for public affairs junkies, the kind of people who listen to NPR every single morning with breakfast and who fanatically always vote. That is where the “attentive public” go. That is a minority.
Now, if the SA is investing in a new reporter on transportation issues, it might be because they feel they are losing influence or credibility with Hawaii’s attentive public. That’s embarrassing, and it means a loss of editorial influence. There might be a competition between the SA and CB in this sense, for prestige or influence.
But it is not for loss of advertising dollars, like with the advent of craigslist. Whoever covers sports or reviews the latest Apple product or rock concert gets the advertisers.
The more I think about this statement, the less sense it makes. It basically says “Just because two companies do not compete with one another at all, does not mean that they do not compete.”
Good for Kevin and for us. Gotta love the hacks who try out the flack and then return to being hacks. 🙂
Ian, Thanks for the good news. I used to talk to Kevin quite a lot on behalf of the Commission, and consider him one of the best reporters in Hawaii. It will be good to be reading his articles again.
Glad to read about Kevin. He’s a very fine reporter. I just hope the SA will give Kevin the time, space and resources to be the journalist that he is.
Great News. A real reporter who actually investigates rather than regurgitates!