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"Sometimes, there aren't happy endings, and sometimes, even when you get what you want, you don't."That's how Ray Barrington of the Green Bay News-Chronicle wrapped up his column yesterday, a column summarizing the Star-Bulletin's amazing survival in the face of Gannett's determined grab for monopoly. Although a few errors jump out at readers intimately familiar with the tale (like placing the first edition of the "new" S-B on March 14 instead March 15), Barrington captures the mood of our wild ride as well as the irony that this diary, which contributed to the Star-Bulletin's survival, also led to my own eventual termination from the newspaper's staff.
The News-Chronicle, of course, is the small Wisconsin newspaper that has been battling Gannett for years and was featured in the book, The Chain Gang, which has been a tool in the Star-Bulletin's own marketing war with Gannett.
It was quite a zoo here at home yesterday, with tree trimmers doing major work on a large banyan and all eight cats locked in the house with me. One unexpected result was a wonderful session with Silverman, who seemed to thoroughly enjoy being trapped inside and drawn into an extended interaction. Silverman is the mystery cat, friendly but not wholly domesticated, who discovered the cat door and food while we were on a mainland trip back in September 1999. In fact, we returned to find him lounging on our back deck just a day before word of the Star-Bulletin's closing leaked out.
Silverman is really a beauty, with incredible blue eyes and an unusual, silver spotted coat.
Mr. Silverman
Click here for moreIt's Day 3 of Hawaii's public education strike. No end in sight, reportedly no talks scheduled. So I'm between employment opportunities and Meda's on strike. Yeeeehaaa!
The statewide education strike is obvious almost everywhere you turn, with pickets up at all schools, and it's amazing to realize how many schools there are. I was surprised to discover some schools we drive by daily without noticing, but now the picket lines immediately grab your attention.
After visiting with strikers at Kaaawa Elementary in the early morning yesterday, Meda reported for picket duty at the main University of Hawaii campus in Manoa Valley.
For all practical purposes, the entire university system was shut down along with all public school classrooms, and it looks like it could stay this way for a while.One has to wonder whether the governor realizes just how much damage he is doing to the Democratic Party's future prospects by his attempts to bully the teachers into surrendering.
One reader notes that the Star-Bulletin seems to be adapting to its new look and capabilities with sharp headlines and a bold appearance, and that was evident in Thursday's presentation of the strike.
It looks to me that the SB editors are starting to get their sea legs under themselves, and are learning what they can do with the new presses etc....I noticed this a couple of days ago with the front page with the China-US Navy Plane flap...the SB editors made very good usage of graphics to sell a newspaper and make good usage of quality modern printing presses.The change to the large Honolulu Star Bulletin with the >Wednesday Edition> etc above it, is a very good marketing move. From a reasonable distance you can see if a fresh edition of the SB is in the news rack. vs say a not so current edition of the 'Tizer, and visa versa. Remember.....you don't sell the steak, you sell the sizzle & the aroma.
The larger, terse headlines say it all in getting folks to buy news rack editions, which were non existent under the HNA rule.
This is a historic morning, the first time an entire state's public education system has been shut down by a strike. Professors in the University of Hawaii system and teachers in the Department of Education walked out as of 6 a.m. today. The governor has essentially provoked this strike by pleading lack of funds, on the one hand, while pushing tax cuts and pet projects in his own proposed budget, and then by inserting deal killer provisions in the state's contract proposals until the very last minute. Meda's off to picket this morning along with thousands of her colleagues.
Teachers on strike this morning,
Kaaawa Elementary School
A packet of news clippings concerning the controversial "farm" designation given David & Annabeth Black's Victoria mansion arrived in my mailbox yesterday.
The "farm" status granted by the provincial government to protect existing farms pares $20,000 a year off the Blacks' tax bill, and has survived an initial appeal by the tiny municipality of Oak Bay, a suburb of Victoria, which prohibits farming within its boundaries.
Doug Burkinshaw, an assessor with the B.C. Assessment Authority, told the Times Colonist newspaper that Annabeth Black's agricultural pursuits earned more than the $2,500 in sales needed to qualify for the tax break.
"The majority of the sales occurred on site in conjunction with garden tours of the subject property," Burkinshaw said.
The Black estate, known as Riffington
(photo from the Times Colonist, Victoria, BC)
Municipal officials called the farm designation "irrational if not absurd", but several brief "word on the street" interviews approved of the Black's move. "Go for it," said one young man. "Why not? That's how people get rich; they find loopholes in the tax system."A cartoon appearing in the Oak Bay News depicts the home along with several luxury cars. The caption: "Like most prairie folk, Oak Bay farmers have difficulty choosing between the Rolls and the Porsche to get their 'taters to market."
The local Oak Bay News is owned by Black Press but has continued to report on the controversy involving it's owner, certainly a credit to both the newspaper and to Black.
They've put the "Honolulu" back in the Star-Bulletin.
The first big change in the consultant-driven redesign "new" Star-Bulletin slipped in over the weekend with the reappearance of the large banner "Honolulu Star-Bulletin" on the front page.
That's the latest version in front, and the short-lived consultant version underneath it. The consultants had de-emphasized Honolulu, perhaps to conform to their vision of how "real" newspapers present themselves and relate to their local communities.
I don't know what triggered this quick change but, according to what I've been told, it originated with local staff and was approved by the Canadian management.
Oops. I checked the logs last night, and discovered that a lot of folks stopped by the diary yesterday, went to read through entries for the last two weeks, and discovered all the photo links were broken. Apparently I screwed up when moving that page into the archive and lost the links. But the most interesting thing--not a single person complained. Normally, a lack of complaints would be good news, but not under these circumstances. Please, please let me know of broken links and missing links so that I can get them fixed. After all, you can't get to all the great photos if the links are wrecked!Rick Daysog's long analysis of secret Bishop Estate/Kamehameha Schools files began yesterday in the Star-Bulletin. The series was apparently supposed to start on Sunday, but an excess of advertising forced a last minute shuffle.
Hawaii Cows commented yesterday on the Star-Bulletin's entry in the Sunday newspaper shootout. Among the observations:
First, the good news. Had the Longs ad. Everybody knows that's the most important thing in the Sunday paper. But, if you wanted fo' know what was on sale at CompUSA or OfficeMax or Sears, you was out of luck. Daiei and a couple others had inserts, but none of those big mainland chains coughed up the bucks. This is not good.After several other comments about the comics, the local magazine, and the tv guide, the entry advises:
No question, this is a work in progress. But this is not the time to make local-style--grumble to your friends and family and then quietly start reading da odda guys. Make noise! Let those folks know what you like and what you no like. And then if they no listen, maybe the loss not so big after all.Good suggestion. Don't just grumble. Complain. Maybe there will be a course correction and an improved Star-Bulletin as a result.
S-B folks say daily circulation has jumped to about 70,000 in the first two weeks, despite the nagging delivery problems and other complaints. And the Sunday edition was the first 100,000-copy run in decades. Congrats to all the staff for making it happen, even without phones.
"Gannet is really going for our throats I hear...."That was the comment of a Star-Bulletin staffer over the weekend, and it was obvious in yesterday's battle of the Sunday papers. The S-B's first Sunday edition was really very good, complete with a special commemorative section looking back at the Star-Bulletin's long history, a new travel section and a locally produced Sunday magazine, lots of good writing, a tv section, all the things you would look for in a Sunday paper, and it drew lots of support from advertisers.
Gannett's Honolulu Advertiser responded with a very large paper, the kind that usually trumpets the start of the Christmas shopping season, along with a special insert section featuring a letter from publisher Mike Fisch and "Our Commitment to You."
I'm sorry, but Gannett's commitment sounds like what it probably is, a transient management with few local roots parroting the results of their last round of focus groups. Yes, I'm very cynical about this. The claims of localism ("to reflect a love and understanding of this place and its people," "to perpetuate the qualities of aloha", etc.) run counter to Gannett's underlying approach to running its newspaper business, and sound like the protest localism of the newly arrived resident bubbling with enthusiasm for elements of the local community which they don't really understand.
These claims would be more obviously hollow if the "new" Star-Bulletin hadn't started its run by dropping its local design elements, ceding the hibiscus to Gannett, and bending over backwards to avoid what, in their consultants' views, would prevent it from becoming a "real" newspaper, that is, one that looks familiar to those folks from the mainland (and Canada).
What isn't clear is how the Star-Bulletin can sustain a Sunday product of this ambitious scope along with the daily am/pm cycle without an infusion of new writers and additional resources.
And, in cat news...
Most mornings, Lizzie assists me with this diary entry. When she went through her routine later in Sunday morning, I grabbed the camera and took a few shots at arms' length just to share with all of you.
And for you cat folks, we compiled a new census of the current feline household.
I'm trying a different sleep protection strategy this week, but only at the cost of a guilty conscience. For the last couple of days, when Leo first wakes up and lobbies for food and attention, I give him just a single chance to be a well behaved cat. When he returns to the bedroom and starts a second round of attention-demanding behavior, I dump him outside, block the cat door, and go back to sleep. Seems like a normal way to handle a rambunctious cat, but I'm just not accustomed to such authoritarian solutions at home or at large.Sweet Ms. Lizzie brought another little rat in last night while we were eating, but this time we didn't see it. We did notice some elaborate play routines going on, but the rat was not in evidence until this morning, when I saw Lizzie prodding poor thing to check whether any play potential remained.
I haven't seen the Sunday edition yet. We'll check it out after the morning walk.
There are some S-B staffers who are convinced that all email from starbulletin.com addresses is being blocked and rejected by Gannett computers. My search for confirmation quickly broke down, though, when others said they believed their mail was still going through. Whether true or not, though, it's an indication of the level of distrust of Gannett's business practices. Feedback on the status of starbulletin.com-Advertiser email would be appreciated.
Last year I wrote a whole April Fools' entry describing an employee buyout of the Star-Bulletin. This year my heart just isn't in it. Sorry.
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