On a whim, I looked back to see what I had written here nineteen years ago on July 31, 2000.

At that time I was still a reporter for the old Honolulu Star-Bulletin. Ten months earlier, the Star-Bulletin’s owner had announced plans to close the newspaper, but that rush to closing had been blocked by a federal judge in Honolulu. The judge’s order required the S-B owner, Liberty Newspapers, and Gannett, its partner in Honolulu’s joint operating agreement, to make a legitimate effort to sell the Star-Bulletin.

Just a few days earlier, a court decision in San Francisco had given the green light for Hearst’s closing of the San Francisco Examiner, while also holding that anti-trust laws required the publisher to attempt to sell the newspaper before shutting down its presses for good.

In any case, here is my entry for this day, nineteen years ago, as well as a link to my other entries for the latter half of July.

The reference to “the dark side” in the first sentence is to Gannett, at that time the highly successful and aggressive publishing giant. It was Gannett that was driving the plan to close the Star-Bulletin and eliminate its only real competitor in the state.

And the Saturday night party, also referenced in that same sentence, had been a spontaneous celebration of the SF court case, which meant that the process of seeking a buyer for the Star-Bulletin, which was still underway, had to be allowed to play out.

It’s strange to look back and recall all of the pessimism about the odds that the S-B would somehow manage to survive. It seemed like such a long shot during a period when newspapers across the country were dying in record numbers. In the end, though, the Star-Bulletin not only found a buyer and survived, but ended up winning the ensuing newspaper war and eventually buying the Honolulu Advertiser from Gannett, merging the two newspapers into today’s Honolulu Star-Advertiser.

And on that long-ago July 31, we were waiting to see whether an approaching tropical storm would come close enough to do damage. The same “wait & see” that we’re doing today.

July 31 (2000) Monday

Several different attitudes towards the dark side were evident at Saturday night’s party. There are some Star-Bulletin staffers who take this whole experience personally and now hate Gannett and the Advertiser, as well as their news product and most of those involved in it apart from front line reporters. Then there are those with a somewhat more detached view who have simply come to hate Gannett’s approach to the news business, but don’t blame those who are just following corporate orders. And out on the other side are a remaining group of “realists” who dislike what’s been done to the Star-Bulletin but who have few qualms about going to work at the Advertiser if it ends up as the only newspaper in town. There may even be a few who secretly would prefer to make that move sooner rather than later, but who are blocked by the terms of the current court order, which prohibits Gannett from raiding our newsroom.

Interestingly, little of the hostility is aimed at Liberty Newspapers, the actual owner of the Star-Bulletin, which virtually everyone recognizes as a shill simply doing Gannett’s business as directed.

It’s been bittersweet at home, as we’re trying to enjoy our last few days with Buster, our senior male cat. The cancer on his face is growing rapidly, obviously causing increasing discomfort, and forcing us towards the point of final decision.

Meanwhile, we’re still waiting to see whether tropical storm Daniel (fka hurricane) will be more than a token presence in our area. If it does bring heavy rain, we could have a bit of trouble getting home tonight as there are several stretches of road where flooding is relatively common.