The Honolulu Star-Advertiser, Oahu’s line daily newspaper, is in the process of being sold, according to a story in today’s newspaper.
But what does the first sentence in the story mean?
The owner of the Honolulu Star-Advertiser has entered a court-supervised restructuring to reduce debt and to position the company for a possible sale to a partnership that plans to invest in quality, impactful journalism in Hawaii.
What court? What country? Black’s empire is based in Canada, so is the court in Canada or the U.S.?
Does this mean that Black Press filed for bankruptcy protection? The description certainly sounds that way, but remains purposefully vague.
Star-Advertiser owner restructuring, sale of company in the works
Note: See the comments for a link to the company press release.
And a story published in Alaska noted that the company’s majority owner, David Black, 77, announced his retirement at the same time as the sale was made public.
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Another investigation for, Ian. The deterioration of SA has been evident, coverage poor mostly.
Bankruptcy filed in the Supreme Court of British Columbia, per company’s press release:
https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/black-press-announces-corporate-restructuring-and-sale-transaction-882401360.html
Their reliance on the NYTimes for national and other news and opinion led to my canceling my subscription. I stick with local community newspaper and searching around for other local sources on line. Ian’s one of the best, of course. Too bad the Star-Advertiser’s long history of service to Hawaii is ending with such a fizzle. [edited]
It was bad enough when the Advertiser and the Star-Bulletin consolidated, thus reducing the important competitive factor. Of course,, this was happening all over the US at the time–for example, the San Francisco Chronicle and Examiner. In almost every case the result was a drastic reduction in quality. But what happens if no buyer for the Star-Advertiser can be found? Civil Beat is great at what it does but it addresses a niche market and is far from a full-scale daily. Conversely, the Washington Post and the New York Times–probably the only two truly national dailies remaining–cannot get into most local news throughout the country. Maybe President Trump will fix things up by closing all paper nationwide and substituting his own version of Pravda.
If another buyer doesn’t emerge once the company is offered for sale, then the creditor group, with the addition of the Tennessee-based Carpenter Media Group, will be the fall-back buyers, according to news accounts.