This via a mutual friend’s Facebook page. A sad day.
From Michael Tsai on layoffs at the Star-Advertiser (I see no mention this morning IN the SA): “Twenty-nine laid off. We all found out via email. My last shift is this Sunday. Mind you, I was only back temporarily as a part-time fill-in for a couple of reporters who are out on leave. I have another full-time job; I’ll be fine. The real loss is a group very talented, long-time journalists whose names and work have been synonymous with local print media for decades. The cuts went high up the seniority list and the result for our local community will be significant.”
A comment noted it’s like more than 29.
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Wow. How many are reporters?
Not reported at this point.
The 29 refers only to full-time employees the company identified to the guild: 13 reporters, 7 clerks, 4 page designers, all 3 remaining artists, 2 photographers and 1 online designer. To our knowledge there were also two part-time reporters (including me) and two part-time editors cut.
I knew this would happen but I remain deeply saddened. This is just another sign of the times. I recommend watching ‘Idiocracy’ for perspective. Trump is going down this year, but the people who voted for him haven’t left. This year has been heartbreaking, but, if anything, things will get worse.
One day, maybe they will try putting the journalists in charge, instead of the ad sales guy, seeing as that has worked out so splendidly.
News people in charge? Think people are trying to find that. Used to be that way when the Advertiser was in their Bldg on South n Kapiolani, and spent many hours in Columbia Inn, next door, hashing over the day’s stories. Fun times!!
KHNL reporting #30. How many staff are left remaining in the newsroom? Someone to turn the lights OFF?
Will this news be reported in tomorrow’s paper?
If not, that paper has absolutely no credibility.
It had little to begin with.
Not in the paper, today Saturday….guess you could read between the lines and change another story article.
Replace “Meadow Gold Dairy Property Sale” you could, just substitute “The Star Advertise property sale”.
How much of the decimation of newsrooms across the country is attributable to the readership/public not being willing to pay for news content?
We have been so accustomed to “free” content on the internet that we become almost indignant when asked to pay for a news media subscription or behind-the-paywall access.
This constant erosion of revenue can only lead to more staff cuts, less reportage, and the eventual death of most newspapers in mid-to-smaller cities.
And the massive drop in advertising due to Covid just accelerated the demise of the SA.
While the drop in readership and advertising has been a big problem, so has corporate greed. Much, if not an equal amount of the killing off of newspapers, is due to the take-over of the paper’s owners by Financial Holding and Equity companies. These robber-barons of the 21st Century pay big money for the newspaper, then gut its staff and in many cases, sell off as much property as they can. Even if the Holding Companies decide to keep the papers alive, they are so strapped with debt hat they have to slash and burn. This is what has also happened in the radio and TV station business. Huge companies acquired hundreds of properties and then gutted them to pay off the debt which they used to build their empires. Here in Hawai’i, we have ten of our major radio stations owned by 2 companies which got rid of 90 % of LOCAL staff, eliminated almost all news coverage, and run some of our stations by remote control from the mainland. All of the major network affiliates (KITV, KHON, HNL’s 2 NETWORK affiliates) are owned by mainland mega-companies which have cut budgets and people with NO concern about local news coverage. These tactics have made us dumber (and please don’t tell me the information and coverage we need is available on the internet or social media) and is a threat to democracy. The S-A kept us informed about issues we need to know about. The bad guys and the politicians are celebrating this lay-off.
So sorry to hear about this! It’s bad enough to receive this news, but to find out via e-mail is outrageous! People matter, & should be informed in person, face-to-face.
How much is due to out of country ownership, only profit orientated?
list of those laid off
13 are reporters
http://www.hawaiifreepress.com/ArticlesMain/tabid/56/ID/25758/List-of-Staff-Being-Laid-off-by-Star-Advertiser.aspx
Apparently the UNION gambled the staffers jobs is what I’m told. The newspaper guild from the mainland rejected a temporary plan to reduce work hours that was implemented with about 200 other employees. Obviously the 2 month total shutdown of business and 240,000 people out of work impacted the paper greatly. Not sure why the “reporters” felt so special that only other employees had to be affected. The union played hardball with no cards and lost. But according to the PBN story they are still negotiating and it could still be avoided. Dunno…hope so.
That is not correct. The reduction in hours was unilaterally imposed on all guild members, after the similarly unilaterally imposed furloughs, but was later offset by the PPP loan. The guild initiated negotiations to try to work with management on whatever cost savings the company felt were necessary. The last offer by management went far, far beyond mere hour reductions and was more drastic than anything that has been reported. The union was preparing a counterproposal when management sent out the layoff notices — via email on a holiday. Now ask what benefit it is for OPI to be sitting on a company with drastically reduced liabilities.
I feel sad for the reporters and others, but how the mighty have fallen. Remember the bad old days when the Hawaii Newspaper Agency could dictate whatever advertising rates they wanted? Remember when the Twigg-Smiths sold the Advertiser for $105 million? Creative destruction is, for better or worse, the engine of capitalism, and we’re seeing it accelerate in the news business. I wish that I knew what will be born of this chaos. Perhaps the only alternative is for a billionaire to buy the newspaper–see the Los Angeles Times and Washington Post–who has deep enough pockets to invest in creating a product so compelling that people can’t resist reading it.
By the way, I’m the “Mike” who posted the June 12 comment, not the one who posted earlier today (14th). Sorry to the other “Mike” for the duplication.
Glad that I was able to work at the Honolulu Star-Bulletin when it was in it’s heyday! Also glad I never had to cover politics and just stuck to crime and punishment (which included a number political figures!) and writing my three-times a week humor column, “Honolulu Lite.”