Tyler Olsen, managing editor of the Fraser Valley Current, penned two long stories this week analyzing news that Black Press Ltd. is insolvent and has filed for protection from creditors while it attempts to reorganize and prepare a solicitation of offers to purchase the company’s sprawling assets.
It’s of interest in Hawaii because Black Press is the parent company of the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, smaller newspapers on Kauai and Hawaii Island, along with dozens of other community newspapers in Western Canada and the State of Washington, which are owned through an array of subsidiaries and affiliates. The Star-Advertiser is now the largest publication in the Black Press stable of newspapers.
To read the stories, you’ll be asked to register for the free publication. Don’t be intimidated. I entered my email and was immediately able access the site.
Olsen’s FV Current is a newsletter published 5 times a week.
Here’s how it describes itself: “How to stay connected to local news, events, food, and people in Abbotsford, Chilliwack, Langley, Mission, and the rest of the Fraser Valley. Read by 30,000+ locals daily.”
Olsen has long experience with Black Press and a good sense of the history of the company.
A full declaration of my conflict of interests for this story would be the story of much of my adult life. So we’ll keep this as brief as possible. My first work experience week in high school was at the Black Press-owned newspaper in my hometown of Vernon, BC. My first post-university newspaper job was at the same paper. I returned to Black Press in 2014, when it acquired the second paper I worked at: the Chilliwack Times. The company then transferred me to work at the Abbotsford News, another of its titles. I wasn’t enthusiastic about that move, I was less happy when the company closed down the Times, and I was heartbroken when personal tragedy struck former co-workers pushed out of jobs. I left Black Press unhappy with the company’s direction. Today, I operate an ostensible competitor to Black Press, though we actually rely on its reporters’ local news-gathering operations to help inform our readers through our Need To Know section. I consider many people still employed by the company to be friends and want them to stay employed. I love newspapers.
But somebody should write in depth about what led a BC paper chain with continental ambitions to end up filing for creditor protection this week. And if history is any indication, it’s possible nobody will. So here’s what happened. All the facts here are either a matter of public record and broadly known or come directly from personal observation.
Tucked away in the second of Olsen’s stories is this short section specifically addressing the Star-Advertiser.
One of the first questions they’ll face will concern the future of the chain’s single-largest paper: the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. The paper could, hypothetically, be sold. It’s the only major daily newspaper in the chain and, as such, could potentially fetch the largest sum of money should it be sold. But it also might be a money pit that is currently sucking up profits from the chain’s other smaller papers.
Black Press obtained its Hawaii daily paper for just $10 two decades ago. One would think it would be worth more than that today. In 2021, the Tribune Publishing newspaper chain in the United States sold for $633 million. Tribune owned 11 papers, putting the average value of each one at around $55 million. The Baltimore Sun was valued by one potential buyer at around $63 million. But a newspaper’s value also depends on the financial baggage and obligations it carries, and how profitable it is. Some North American newspapers have been judged essentially worthless and either stripped for assets, folded, or turned into non-profits.The Hawaii paper could also be judged essentially worthless in the short term, but with potentially long-term value if its new owners can make it profitable—a shift that, if history is any indication, would be attempted via severe staffing cuts.
In any case, news junkies will find some interesting background here.
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WOW! More to come, I hope…
Not a very good reporter. It was the Star Bulletin that was purchased for $10. It was name only. No assets. Pretty sure the SA is worth a tad more than he’s making reference. Especially since as reported by CB the documents show the payroll is 20 million. That’s much higher then any other news gathering org in Hawaii by a lot I’m sure.,
If a community won’t sustain a newspaper, then there is nothing to be done, unless some wealthy person decides to take it on as a charitable cause. My feelings about the Star-Advertise are not mixed: in its current iteration it should be put out of its misery. One need look no further than its coverage of the Miske case and yours. I continue to pay for digital access to the Star-Advertiser, but once they outsourced obituaries to Legacy.com, the value of that subscription dropped precipitously. Think of it: obituaries are the most local of news, and the paper can’t provide them under its own imprimatur.
Thanks for this article, Ian, and especially for including the links to Olsen’s articles. My father was a journalist, and I have have been saddened by the demise of print journalism in Honolulu. I regard the SA as an advertising rag, whose editors or owners don’t even know what a banner headline is for [to entice people to buy the paper], so cover most of it and their lead article with advertising! I cringe every time I pass a newsstand at this blatant assertion that news doesn’t matter! Thank goodness for Civil Beat and for independent journalists like you.
Can the S-A be considered a “daily” paper if its Saturday edition is (last I heard) online only?
I just went through trying to get my moms obituary in her former hometown newspaper. It’s owned by McClatchy. Their obit website said I could have one inserted, however when I tried to finalize it I couldn’t do it. After over a week of automated email answers and no one answering my numerous messages, I finally went to legacy obit website. According to them Legacy doesn’t partner with this paper in publishing obits. Finally McCatchy obit contacted me today and said they (the herald) no longer do obits, and the closest paper obit I could get would be the Tacoma News Tribune. The once weekly Puyallup Herald newspaper is now relegated to a section in the Tacoma paper. It’s a sad day when you can’t a decent print newspaper.
Thanks for publishing this timely story. Yesterday, I listened to an excellent podcast from “On the Media” which told how newspaper ownership, not the reporting or the editors, were primarily responsible for the problems in newspapers across the country. It’s sad to see how owners have abused and misused the assets, including the staff, of broadsheet dailies.