The last issue of the Star-Bulletin will appear two weeks from today, with the first "new" Star-Bulletin coming out the following day, with any luck. It's probably generally true that staffers are beginning to hit the panic buttons as the ticking of the clock gets louder.Two weeks from today will also be my last paycheck from the Star-Bulletin and my step back out into the rest of the world.
This is the second day in a row that we've had to cancel the morning walk due to illness. It doesn't happen too often in the course of a year, but I've either got a pretty good cold or a bit of this flu that's been going around.
Gannett has requested ten additional guards assigned to the news building beginning a week from tomorrow, as if we'll be reluctant to leave or something. Sounds nuts, but if they want to waste the money, who wants to argue?
I've also heard that Gannett is putting off major renovations of the building, and will do more of a cosmetic facelift before moving into the soon-to-be-vacated Star-Bulletin newsroom, but that rumor may not be consistent with the presence of the design team that was poking around since the beginning of the year. Whether or not they're proceeding with the larger renovation plan would appear to reflect back on how confident Gannett really is about winning this newspaper war with the new Star-Bulletin/Midweek combo.
Potential advertisers have been responding favorably to the "new" Star-Bulletin as the sales staff get into gear, or so I'm told. The grapevine says several major accounts have inked new pacts and that there's lots of optimism down in the new offices.
Here's another of the interesting responses to last week's news, received, if I'm not mistaken, from a reader in Texas:
Your diary was important to all of us in the industry - and to those who care about newspapers. It offered something I've never seen before - an inside view of the fight to keep an old, and respected, newspaper alive.It was clear that you always strove for honesty and fairness in your diary, not always easy when one's livelihood is at stake, and those of us who followed your chronicle respected that. It is painful to think that your diary, which gave so many of us an insight into what was happening in Hawaii, led to the loss of your job. The fact that your diary existed, I always thought, showed the difference between the Star-Bulletin and Gannett.
Problems keep cropping up as the race to get the "new" Star-Bulletin up and running hits the final stretch. Many appear to result from a lack of communication and the topdown nature of the planning and implementation. Some feel certain decisions about the details of newsroom design must have been made by someone unfamiliar with the actual mechanics of a working newsroom in a daily operation, and will make editorial and production much tougher than necessary.The word going around is that section editors haven't been consulted, or have not been listened to, in either the personnel decisions or assignments. The result is that some people are scheduled to work at home although their section editors really want or need them in the newsroom.
Additional software training for staffers involved in layout were canceled yesterday because of "computer problems". Turned out that the problem was a last minute "discovery" that the software, Baseview, will not allow the work flow to proceed as it does in our newsroom. It wasn't known yesterday whether the software can be modified to reflect our setup, or whether our procedures (and perhaps some personnel) will have to change.
Computers and telephone lines for those assigned to work at home are finally in the process of being installed, just over two weeks from the transition date.
It's clear that some staffers are uncomfortable being around those of us who will have been informed that our services are no longer required. Someone quipped yesterday that perhaps we need to make up a few "Dead Man Walking" T-shirts for wear in the newsroom.
I've gotten secondhand reports that Newspaper Guild lawyers are looking at whether the layoffs are legal, since they would not be legal under either the current collective bargaining agreement with Liberty Newspapers or the new contract with Black's Oahu Publications. It sounds like one of those long shots, but then again so did the chances of survival for the Star-Bulletin as a whole.
A couple of sources say Black's management has been trying to find another investigative reporter to replace me, and have had discussions with former Advertiser reporter Jim Dooley, who moved to KITV in 1996.
There was more news over the weekend about last week's personnel actions by the new Star-Bulletin's management.
Trini Peltier was apparently among those pushed into retirement. You may recall that just last month we celebrated the contributions of three longtime employees, including Trini's nearly 50 years with the paper. Pushing her out the door further whittles away at the spirit that has kept the staff together during the last year and a half of turmoil.
Here's how one of my colleagues put it in an email over the weekend:Several of the reporters, editors and workers being terminated or "convinced to retire" from the old Star-Bulletin have multiple years of experience, some more than 30 years' worth. These are people who stuck it out and continued to work and support the Star-Bulletin during the last 18 months despite job offers elsewhere. While it was the Guild that organized the community and created the legal groundwork for preserving the newspaper for a new owner, it was the staff who kept it as a product worth buying. During this same period, the Star-Bulletin's highly-paid managers hid in their offices and had no comment.I know there are some staffers consulting lawyers, something which was obviously anticipated by management, hence the impersonal notice via form letters.
It isn't clear whether the new management is aware of the damage that's being done to staff morale on the eve of this newspaper war. While all eyes should be on Gannett, instead attention is now directed elsewhere. Perhaps there are larger problems that we're not aware of which make all this pale in significance. For the sake of the paper, I hope not.
Many thanks to those of you who commented on the "Dear Ian" letter I received this week from the management of the "new" Star-Bulletin. Here are a few of my favorites, with names of the authors omitted.I'm so sorry to hear that you won't be continuing with the Honolulu Star Bulletin. I also want to thank you for writing your on-line diary. It has offered a lot of insight into what was happening behind the scenes at the Star Bulletin. It has also given me a glimpse into the life of your family (cats and everyone's dogs included...plus an occasional wild pig), which I've thoroughly enjoyed. I hope that you will continue to maintain your diary even after March 15. I'd be interested in seeing where this opportunity to start something new will lead you....I've always found your writing to be enlightening. (I was just about to say that I've always found your writing to be enjoyable, but I must admit that there were times when I'd read your diary and get so upset over what Gannett was doing that I'd email my brother and rant, rave, and grumble. After a while, he told me that perhaps I shouldn't read your diary so often if it kept getting me so mad.... and I had to back away for a while... *blushinglaugh* I've gone back since then and read all of the portions that I missed, though.)
*****
I'm sure that Oahu Publications must have felt somehow threatened by your Internet diary, imagine that! a journalist trying to chronicle the times.
They're almost as high handed as the other guys, and they must realize that when they bought the Star-Bulletin, in effect they paid for the talent and the voice of its staff. They didn't get anything else of value, so to pay all that money and then lose its color and personality doesn't make much sense.
The Star-Bulletin could not have survived without the courage and determination of its staff. As an HNA employee who once received "The Letter" from Gannett, I can certainly commiserate with you.
Well as they say, "when one door closes...." Good luck!
*****
It's especially disappointing for those of us far from Honolulu who have appreciated your role in keeping us informed but, more importantly, providing a common experience and spirit for your colleagues as they waited to see what the future would bring.
*****
That's a heck of a "dear John" letter.
It irks me that no one in upper management has the fortitude to do these things face-to-face. And in the case of Diane, they didn't have the decency to offer a single mom a fair severance package.
With all the turmoil of the startup I hope Black realizes he risks having his own employees not trusting him. There is a long list of poorly made decisions and delays due to one of his managers -- none are catastrophic by themselves -- but when added up they comprise a serious obstacle course....
Wishing you the best of luck in whatever comes next. Thanks for keeping the online diary going. It's raised the ire of some. And you've sacrificed part of a career to help give others insight into a most difficult situation. I hope others understand the price you've paid.
*****
I am sorry that you will not be at the "New" Star Bulletin. I was hoping that you would be. Does this mean that Oahu Publishing can only handle certain types of coverage? - if so, it hardly bodes well for their fight with Gannett. (The new SB 'loyalty' trip sounds a bit too much like the Bush Administration).
*****
I am surprised. Even if you aren't.
This whole thing has given me flashbacks to that movie on the Dionne quintuplets on CBS. The government abducts the children, putting them on display in an amusement park setting for years, while their parents desperately try to win them back. After a long and bitter struggle, the parents triumph, and a happy end seems at end. Then we get thrown the curveball that with being with their daddy was even worse.
Situation is obviously different, but my feelings for both are the same. Yes, the Star-Bulletin escaped extinction, but at what cost? They've given up their managerial diversity, they've released their watchdog (will you even keep your retirement benefits?), who kept things honest at the Star Bulletin the same way the Star Bulletin kept things honest in Hawaii. The name of the Star Bulletin will live on, but is anybody fooled when somebody attaches the name "filet mignon" to a hamburger?
Hiwa died last night. She's been fighting a liver infection for two years, so like the Star-Bulletin's termination letter, it was a shock but not a surprise. We brought her home in the early afternoon from the vet, where she had stayed under medical supervision while we were in Hilo. She spent a little time in the driveway, then sat in her favorite ferns for a while. When it started drizzling, I brought her inside and she went to sleep. She didn't wake up when I offered some freshly cooked fish later in the evening.
She finally slipped away relatively quietly just minutes before 11 p.m., wrapped in a clean towel on the green tile floor of my bathroom, with both Meda and I holding her. She had purred in recognition, and kneaded with her front paws, right up until her last moments, letting us know she was aware of our presence. We knew her time was short, but didn't expect it to run out now, in the waning hours of this tumultuous week.
After she passed on, we sat outside in silence, with the big dipper overhead and the north star directly ahead. I waited for a shooting star that never appeared.
Luckily, perhaps, we spent Friday afternoon visiting the volcano area of the Big Island, about a 30 mile drive from Hilo, returning for the first time in years to the edge of Halemaumau, the legendary home of Pele, the Hawaiian goddess of the volcano.
The endless black of overlapping lava flows stretching endlessly into the distance merge with the gray skies into a seamless whole, a first somewhat depressing and then awe inspiring, a reminder that human history is a speck in geological time. Perspective is important at times like this.
February 22, 2001 - Thursday
Oops. The error is mine. Sunday's post inadvertently erased this critical earlier entry, which now exists only on a backup, unfortunately not accessible to me from this computer. So you'll have to get my bad news in stages.The basics: Welcome to the journal that ate my job. My letter arrived on Wednesday, and I was informed that Mr. Black's Star-Bulletin is not offering me a job, and my employment with the paper ends March 14. Here's the letter, signed by John Flanagan.
I'll restore the full entry ASAP. Check back on Monday.
Here it is, the original Thursday post....
February 22, 2001 - Thursday [posted somewhat prematurely due to my flight schedule this afternoon]
Welcome to the journal that ate my job. At least the wait is over.The letter that finally arrived from Oahu Publications was no happy valentine, despite the February 14th date. It was a short four sentences, signed by John Flanagan. A form letter, by the way. The bottom line: "Your services will not be required by the Honolulu Star-Bulletin...." If you've really got to read the whole thing, such as it is, click here.
When I began this effort, back in September 1999 when Liberty Newspapers announced the plan to close the Star-Bulletin, I never imaged things ending this way, done in by our own management. But the handwriting's been spread around the walls like bad graffiti for some time now, so this wasn't really a complete surprise, although it was still a shock.
I've heard of two other staffers (in addition to Diane Chang) who will also lose their jobs, one who was criticized by Flanagan during his interview for writing too sharply about one of the sacred cows of high school athletics, and for generally being too aggressive in his sports reporting. If anybody out there is interested in looking at a resume and clips of a sports reporter with a very good eye and a sharp pencil, email me and I'll put you in touch with him.
There's a third-hand tale that it was Black's lawyer who advised against any face-to-face meetings to let staffers know their respective fates. Treat everyone equally, they supposedly advised. So they did. Badly.
There are other outstanding issues that have been rolling through the newsroom all day, and the Guild is advising staffers to hold off on signing and returning the employment offers until Guild repWayne Cahill is able to meet with the company. Wayne is also seeking clarity on how the company is handling severance pay for those of us being liberated from the daily grind.
In case you're wondering, I don't have anything lined up and actually don't really know what I'll be doing next, so there's still a bit of mystery ahead.
I've decided not to take my laptop while on vacation for the next 2-3 days and allow myself a chance to cool off. So don't look for an update here until Sunday morning. There will be more to tell then. But I will be checking email in the interim, so don't hesitate to contact me at diary@ilind.net.
It was midmorning yesterday when the first person in the newsroom received their letter from Oahu Publications, the company set up to purchase the Star-Bulletin. As the day went on, others checked and found letters waiting as wellSo far, all the letters I've heard about advise the recipients that they have been hired and will report to such and such an editor on March 15. They're informed that schedules are subject to change and are set by the company. Salary is noted, and the letter then has a long paragraph containing a confidentiality clause, prohibiting disclosure of "confidential/proprietary" information gained in the course of employment. It may be boilerplate language, but without any definitions of what is included and excluded by these terms, it has obvious and ominous free speech implications.
The letter then asks each recipient to acknowledge that there have been no other promises or representations made (contrary to reality) but then states that, in any case, this written offer trumps any such prior promises.
You're asked to sign the letter and, presumably, return it to Oahu Publications.
Some staffers realized fully for the first time that the contract approved earlier could mean a substantial pay cut because of the loss of all existing differentials. Some reported cuts are in the $10-12,000 range.
One friend in the newsroom said none of this matters. "If they said we have to all come to work in clown suits, I'd be asking, where's my suit?"
He's got an obvious point. A year ago we all expected to be looking for work sometime soon. Now at least most staffers are getting employment offers and will move to the new Star-Bulletin.
Others are grumbling. There will be a lot more talk today as most letters are received.
Mine could be delivered in Kaaawa today, although sometimes mail takes an extra day or two, depending on schedules. But I'm scheduled to be off (and off island) tomorrow and Friday, so if it's not in my PO box early this morning, I might not see it until the weekend.
But the phrase lurking in the back of my mind is courtesy of Shakespeare: Beware the Ides of March.
The road to March 15 isn't very well paved. Our little staff group finished its scheduled training in the Baseview software yesterday with a second session of under two hours. If you're already using a Macintosh computer, the system is pretty straightforward and this basic introduction should be enough to get reporters through their first stories. Those just starting out on Macs, though, are facing a bit more of a struggle and it's easy to imagine some rough spots in the initial days. Training continues through the week, and the facilities are also available for individual practice, or so we're told.Someone else in our little training group was told that computer installations for those who will be working at home should begin this week. Great, except that I don't think anyone's been told for sure that they'll be based at home, that the installation is coming, or what the installation requirements (space, power, furniture, etc.) are. So there are some very rough edges on the part of this transition visible from the bottom of the communication network, which is where most of us are.
Originally we were told to expect half of the staff to be working from home, then later the number was put at 40. Now there's talk that the number will be just 20-something.
George Steele celebrated his 20th anniversary at the Star-Bulletin last Friday by bringing in pastries from Liliha Bakery (if I recall correctly) to share with the rest of the staff. Congratulations, George!
Sunday started with a bit of excitement when we almost literally ran into a somewhat larger pig than appeared earlier in the week. We were on the first leg of our morning walk, perhaps 35 minutes before dawn, and we had just finished the first leg of the walk, which takes us up the road behind the Kaaawa fire station until it dead ends up towards the mountains. As we came back down the road, a large pig walked out from an area near our house, was obviously startled to see us nearby, and then went crashing back into the bushes. We hurried past, and just hoped that this porker found its way back up the trail.Oahu Publications, publisher of the "new" Star-Bulletin is apparently up and running. Offices are open, telemarketing is set to begin, and advertising sales are underway.
• Business offices (advertising/classifieds/circulation):
500 Ala Moana, Tower Seven, 5th floor, Honolulu, HI, 96813.
- General switchboard (including classifieds): 529-4700
- Circulation/newspaper subscriptions: 529-4848
- Advertising/sales team: 536-5928, fax 545-4918The new staff has already gotten together for their first staff photo, which appears in materials being distributed to advertisers. Additional details about the operation continue to emerge.
Here's the executive lineup, a combination of Black Press, MidWeek, and the Star-Bulletin.
President/ Don Kendall
Executive Vice-President: Ken Berry
VP of Marketing: Don Moores
Publisher/Editor in Chief: John Flanagan
Advertising Director--Jay Higa
Advertising Manager: Maile McLaurin
Retail Sales Director: Lora Williams
Circulation: Mark LewisOne new name appears in sports: "An exciting new face will be Kalani Simpson. Born on Molokai, raised n the Big Island and educated at Dana College in Nebraska, Simpson is so glad to be coming home he chose the Star-Bulletin over the Kansas City Star. A former football player, he has been a sportswriter at several mainland newspapers. Currently he is the editor for four weeklies with Times Publishing Group in Papillion, Nebraska." He will apparently be doing a regular column along with reporting.
Potential advertisers have been told that an aggressive telemarketing campaign will soon be underway, with a call center running by Feb. 22. Contests will drive single copy and subscription sales, and freebies will be seeded among non subscribers as well as Advertiser subscribers.
"Strategic partnerships" are said to have been developed with 7-11, ABC Stores, TESORO, the airport, military bases, Times Supermarket, Foodland, Outrigger Hotels, Jack in the Box.
Meanwhile, it's been reported that Susan and Mickey Nolan, the Honolulu residents who were among the civilians on board the submarine Greeneville when it sank a Japanese training ship, organized a golf tournament on behalf of the USS Missouri Association. What both the Advertiser and Star-Bulletin have tiptoed around is that last year's tournament was sponsored by HNA. A bit of searching turned up a published reference to the "Mighty Mo benefit: The Hawaii Newspaper Agency Battleship Missouri Golf Tournament and Gala Awards Dinner" held Jan. 28, 2000 at Pearl Country Club. Also underplayed, President George Bush (The Senior)'s role as Honorary Chairman of the USS Missouri group.
I spent Saturday in moving mode. After a stop at Office Depot for boxes, I packed up all my books, all my software manuals, and several large boxes of folders. Along the way, I left some books out for office scavengers, scanned some things and dumped the original copies, filled numerous wastebaskets, and contributed to the paper recycling bins. I made a big dent, but it will obviously take another long day to complete the process. And, looking at the calendar, there are only a very few weekends between now and March 15.The problem is that I'm terribly reluctant to part with documents collected while working stories, because I know that at some future point these will provide historical connections or fine details for another story, and they couldn't be recreated on demand when the need finally arises. But keeping everything is impossible, so the process of sorting and dumping is a painful necessity.
Several folks who saw me packing,, knew that this diary was not available all day Friday, and drew a hasty conclusion. But, no, there hasn't been any word about hiring decisions. Apparently no one has received one of the rumored letters, at least not yet, and tomorrow is a holiday without mail service.
Hiwa just keeps surprising me with her resilience and spirit. First she decided to claim the "island" in the middle of the kitchen as her sleeping place Saturday evening, venturing out of the safe spot in my bathroom where she's been staying for several weeks. Then sometime overnight she let herself out to sit in the yard, coming up to the house this morning to request some breakfast. Then she strolled back into the yard, and I was able to grab this picture.
Click photo for larger versionThe Photo Gallery was updated a few minutes ago. Enjoy.
5:25 a.m. and it sounds like the wandering pig is outside again. I can't figure out how he (or she) is managing to avoid setting off all of the neighborhood dogs, who can usually catch the scent of any unusual intruder from a distance.There were several centers of activity at the "new" Star-Bulletin yesterday when our little group showed up for the software training session, but it still is a long way from being a functional newsroom. These last weeks are obviously going t o be a stretch.
The Baseview software system was a pleasure to work with, at least from a simple reporter's standpoint, and if it functions as described. We go back for another 2-hour "advanced" session next week.
The Verizon boxes were stacked up and waiting, as described by others. And the computers are also worth mentioning. I assumed that a budget-minded startup would take advantage of the availability of substantial discounts and stock up on the recently superseded generation of Macintosh G4's, but instead they have a bunch of the latest Macs. The one I used in training was a 533 model with internal CD-RW. Not the top of the line, but the newest model only recently available. And there were lots of others set up in that training room, along with a slew of iMacs outside.
I didn't attend an informal gathering hosted by Oahu Publications/Star-Bulletin last night at Restaurant Row, which I understand was to include tours of the new offices and drinks downstairs.
The whisper yesterday was that employment letters were supposed to be mailed this week. Letters? After all this time and turmoil, we're all going to have to wait for a letter to appear in our mailboxes to find out whether we'll be invited on board for the next stage of the wild ride? I could sort of understand it if there were hundreds of folks in our newsroom, but there aren't. In my humble opinion, the letter route seems a bit low rent.
The weather seems to have taken a turn for the better. The winds and rain have passed. Yesterday I left Ms. Hiwa an open door, and she was outside in the driveway enjoying the sun when we got home. Later, she got a plate of fresh ahi, slightly seared, which was an obvious treat. Not quite her last meal, but we're close to that, I'm afraid.
There was a major meltdown today with the server that hosts this site, making it unavailable until about 6 p.m. Hawaii time. Luckily, this was just a technology glitch and not an anti-diary conspiracy. But thanks for all the inquiries--it's nice to know somebody notices.One result--the hosting company has migrated the whole site to a new and hopefully more stable server. If you get here via www.ilind.net, this doesn't make any difference. But if you were arriving here directly via the IP address, this will need to be updated. Click here and then bookmark to get here via the new IP address.
It wasn't only the computer glitch that wasn't quite right when I got up this morning. I was a few minutes late, so didn't stumble out to the computer until 5:15 a.m.
When I finally woke up enough to notice, the cats were on alert. Lizzie bypassed my lap and stood on the computer to look out the window into the darkness. Leo headed for the top of the kitchen cabinets. Others scurried around the corners of the living room. Then I notice the sounds outside, fallen leaves crunching. something moving, usually the sign that Samantha, our neighbors' very elderly dog, is taking a walk through our yard.
So I grabbed a flashlight and headed outside, where Sam turned out to be a wild pig.
Mr. Piggy was about 10 feet from our
front deck when this photo was taken.
Click on the photo for a larger version.
At least I had the sense to go back inside and grab a camera. I was able to get at single shot before Mr. Pig headed back down the hillside and, presumably, back up into the wilds of the valley above us.We haven't had a visiting pig in quite a few years. It only happened once before, and that was during a prolonged dry spell when pigs were coming down in search of water and food. These pigs aren't scared of people, apparently because they've had little experience with people. This morning's pig wasn't bothered by my presence or the flashlight, but trotted off after the camera's flash went off.
Staffers visiting the new Star-Bulletin offices in the past couple of days have noticed a stack of several dozen small boxes from Verizon Hawaii, each individually addressed to staffers who will be working for the "new" Star-Bulletin. Some were familiar names, others new. Apparently these are new digital phones intended for those who will be working from home.
Visitors could be seen standing around, examining the boxes, picking them up to read the names aloud. Some names were not there, which has spawned more hallway discussions and speculation.
Once again, inadvertent discovery precedes any straightforward announcement. Decisions have been made but not yet communicated down to those most affected. In the rush towards March 15, some routine courtesies are not being attended to.
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