At the bottom of every Civil Beat story, there’s a blurb soliciting tax-deductible donations to the nonprofit news site. I strongly support Civil Beat and hope that it manages to survive in its nonprofit form. But….should the Honolulu Star-Bulletin be listed among those newspapers that have “ceased operations”? I don’t think so.
From the Civil Beat:
A critical time for local journalism . . .
Over 1,800 daily and weekly newspapers in the U.S. have ceased operations since 2004 — among them the Honolulu Star-Bulletin and the Honolulu Weekly. Studies have shown that when local journalism disappears, government financing costs go up, fewer people run for public office, elected officials become less responsive to their constituents, and voter turnout decreases.
Here’s the history as I understand it (and, as a former Star-Bulletin writer back in the old days, I did follow the newspaper’s situation closely over the years).
1999: It was announced that the Star-Bulletin would be closed in 60 days, leaving Gannett’s Honolulu Advertiser as the state’s largest daily newspaper, and Honolulu’s only daily.
2000: A federal court decision blocked the closure of the Star-Bulletin until a good faith effort to sell the newspaper had been made.
2000: In a surprise move, Canadian David Black, who owned a string of small newspapers primarily in Western Canada and Washington State, agreed to buy both the daily Honolulu Star-Bulletin and the free weekly, Mid-Week.
2001: Black took over as owner Star-Bulletin, which didn’t skip a day of publishing during the transition to a new owner.
2010: Gannett sold the Honolulu Advertiser to David Black’s newspaper chain, Black Press, and the Advertiser was merged into the Star-Bulletin. The merged newspaper changed its name to the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. It was the Star-Bulletin’s owner and management team that controlled the newly merged newspaper.
So, did the Star-Bulletin close and disappear? No, although it is now published under a different name.
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When the Evening Bulletin merged with the Hawaiian Star in 1912, they became the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. Neither the Evening Bulletin nor the Hawaiian Star exist today.
Similarly, the Star-Bulletin ceased to exist when it merged with the Advertiser and changed its name.
Saddest of all was the loss of team spirit when it moved to Restaurant Row, long before the name was changed.
Yes, it’s gone!
So, why don’t they list the Advertiser as a closed newspaper?? ALL of the SB news staff were retained and only a small handful of Tizer newsies were hired.
“…and the Advertiser was merged into the Star-Bulletin.”
By this logic, the Honolulu Advertiser also still exists.
If the Star Bulletin had purchased the Honolulu Advertiser, fired everybody at the Advertiser, and dismantled the Advertiser’s physical plant, then maybe the argument could be made that the Star Bulletin still exists under a new name.
Also, the character of the Star Advertiser is very different from a classic local daily newspaper that has a strong sense of mission to the locality, a definite local perspective and an institutional memory. The Star Advertiser is just a business, owned by foreigners and run by outsiders. In fact, it’s not even really a proper daily. The Star Advertiser is bit like a beefed up Mid-Week, only not for free.
The SA owned by a foreigner I get….but just who are the so called “outsiders” running the paper?? Most of those I know have been in Hawaii for decades. Fake News
“Also, the character of the Star Advertiser is very different from a classic local daily newspaper that has a strong sense of mission to the locality, a definite local perspective and an institutional memory. The Star Advertiser is just a business, owned by foreigners and run by outsiders. In fact, it’s not even really a proper daily. The Star Advertiser is bit like a beefed up Mid-Week, only not for free.”
This is the stupidest comment I’ve read here all month.