*gallery
updated
Sunday, March 25
The first Sunday Star-Bulletin is scheduled to be delivered tomorrow. In a brief story yesterday, editor John Flanagan described the Sunday edition as the "flagship" of the new paper. Also noted was a new column by writer Rob Perez, best known for his critical consumer reporting that has drilled into long-standing myths about why prices in Hawaii are so high.What wasn't mentioned is that Rob is giving up his reporting beat to become a full time columnist, scheduled to appear three times a week. He's enthusiastic about the opportunity, and says the column will be "news driven". I'm looking forward to Rob's new direction, but can't help a certain fleeting hollow feeling at the loss of his award winning and in-depth reporting, and I can't help wondering whether the Star-Bulletin intends to nurture that kind of critical reporting in the future.
During the waning days of the "old" Star-Bulletin, there was one school of thought, conveyed by some in management, that attracting and retaining advertisers to support the new paper would be of such overriding importance that reporting which would unnecessarily ruffle feathers of actual or potential advertisers would have to be avoided or, at minimum, subject to extra layers of review. The competing view was that the Star-Bulletin has become known for in-depth and hard-hitting reporting, and that continuing that tradition will be the key to retaining and winning readers, and that readership will attract advertisers.
There was no resolution of this tension, and there was remarkably little discussion with staff about the kind of newspaper the "new" Star-Bulletin intends to become.
It's this background that creates my sense of anxiety, and I'll be watching carefully to see whether David Black's Star-Bulletin supports reporters who try to make waves.
Everyone in Hawaii knows Corky Trinidad, but every B.C.'er knows Corky Evans, it appears.
Ms. Wally and I were sitting there in the kitchen yesterday morning contemplating the mistaken "Corky Evans" reference when the first email came through explaining the error.
"Must be a Canadian doing those staff promo ads," the tipster said. "Corky Evans is a cabinet minister in British Columbia's socialist New Democratic Party government. He ran for the party leadership/premier of the province last year. Didn't win."
Ms. Wally
So we headed for the computer and, sure enough, there was the Honorable other Corky in Victoria, B.C., serving as Minister of Health and a former Minister of Agriculture. He's based in the government offices in Victoria, David Black's other home town.
Today marks two weeks since the Star-Bulletin's first issue printed outside of the Joint Operating Agreement with Gannett. After an initial rush of seeing the new paper on the streets, there hasn't been a whole lot to cheer about. It isn't just that delivery problems continue, perhaps aggravated by Gannett business hardball. There have been printing problems, and errors sneaking past proofreaders. There's the new font and smaller type that's harder to read for older readers, and even some not too old readers. There's been a shortage of local news, perhaps due to more experienced writers devoting extra time to writing for the new Sunday edition, which makes its debut this weekend.
Then there are gaffes like the one yesterday that just made me want to stop and cry.
A large advertisement in the main section of yesterday's S-B highlights "Just a few of our superstars".
Featured are "superstars" Erika Engle, who just joined the new paper, longtime columnist Dave Donnelly, and the cartoonist Corky who, the ad proclaims loudly, "everybody knows".
The problem is that everybody knows Corky Trinidad, who is prominently misidentified in the ad as Corky Evans.
These things are funny when they appear in the other guy's product. I'm still too close to the Star-Bulletin to find them anything other than depressing.And a new teaser is slipped into the text at the top of this ad--"dedicated to news and entertainment". What does this signal, if anything?
The next salvo in Honolulu's newspaper war was just fired, in case anyone thought the fireworks were over. Today's Honolulu Advertiser reports that Gannett has purchased PMP Co. Ltd., which publishes three free community newspapers along with several industry directories. The free papers are distributed to about 100,000 households, according to the story. The purchase gives Gannett a better foothold in the free distribution market. Although the three papers put out by PMP are far less ambitious than MidWeek, purchased earlier by Star-Bulletin owner David Black, they could be a base for a future challenge to MidWeek's dominance.
Kaaawa dawn,
Tuesday, 3/27/01
Neighbor island report. A Big Islander who has been subscribing to the SB for many years reports trying, by both telephone and e-mail, to get his subscription restarted after the changeover. After several days of buying the paper at a newsstand, he was surprised to find Saturday's paper delivered with a note. "If you receive this copy and have been a loyal home delivery customer in the past, we apologize. Your previous distributor would not give us your name and delivery instructions. We're starting from scratch so please be patient."
Yesterday's entry apparently stirred things up a bit. I got a call late in the day from Advertiser writer Glenn Scott, who was working on a story about the Star-Bulletin's potential conflicts in the Waahila power line controversy from a "journalism ethics" perspective, although I don't see the story in the 'Tiser's online edition this morning. I sympathize with Glenn, who was troubled by the prospect of dealing with the issue head on without appearing to be bashing the rival paper.I also received the following email from the Star-Bulletin's Richard Halloran at 3:34 p.m. Monday:
You don't learn, do you? A telephone call a) would have permitted you to check the facts and b) would have been professionally courteous. Below is an item I plan to print tomorrow and I am extending you the courtesy, which you didn't show me, of giving you a chance to respond. If you can get a line to me by 5:00p, I'll try to get it in the paper. --rh--Ian Lind, a former reporter with the Star-Bulletin, has raised a question of journalistic ethics that may interest readers. On his website, Lind suggested on Monday that this writer had a conflict of interest in publishing an editorial favoring Hawaiian Electric Industries position on a power line running over the Waahila Ridge above St. Louis Heights. The facts are these:In 1997, when I was a free lance writer, I was invited to join the board of directors of HEI Power Corp, a subsidiary of HEI that was seeking business in Asia. I knew little about business or electric power but had spent ten years as a foreign correspondent in Asia and more studying and writing about it. Immediately after I was hired as editorial director of the new Star-Bulletin, I resigned from HEIPC to avoid both a conflict and the appearance of a conflict of interest.
When the issue of the power line came up, I recused myself from writing editorials on that subject in an effort to preclude the appearance of conflict even though HEIPC had no connection with the question at hand. I explained that to a representative of Malama o Manoa, which opposes the power line, and to a spokesman for Hawaiian Electric. A colleague wrote the editorial in question; my part as editor was to ask him to clarify a point or two and to ask whether a compromise had been considered.
Lind closed his article by wondering "whether Halloran is still a director of HEI Power, and whether this fact should have been disclosed to readers along with the editorial opinion." If Lind had made a telephone call, he could have ascertained the facts.
Of course, I'm flattered that Halloran finds it necessary to respond to issues raised in this modest online journal. Halloran is absolutely correct in one point. If I were reporting on the issue, I would certainly have talked to him, as well as others on his staff, to learn the circumstances surrounding this editorial position.
But, at this point, I'm not really reporting on the matter, and this informal journal is not posing as an investigative vehicle. The best I can do, from this vantage point, is examine and question the public record, which I did in yesterday's entry.
A few comments on his explanation. Halloran says HEI Power Corp "had no connection with the question at hand." Obviously, it had no direct connection. But as a director of HEI Power up until this year, Halloran and other directors shared a legal fiduciary duty to the company and, presumably, to its parent company, HEI.
Perhaps more importantly, Halloran worked side by side with the other directors of HEI Power, which included HEI president Robert Clarke, Hawaiian Electric Co. president Michael May, and several other top HEI officials, key players in the current controversy.
Halloran explains that he recused himself from personally writing editorials on the power line issue due to conflict of interest concerns, but did not recuse himself from the editorial process involving those issues, acknowledging that he reviewed drafts of the editorial and made suggestions for changes.
The problem for the Star-Bulletin is to convince cynical newspaper readers that such personal relationships and professional ties, along with those of Oahu Publications officer and attorney Jeff Watanabe, who serves as a director of the HEI board and as a member of that board's executive committee, could not influence the newspaper's handling of this sensitive issue. I suspect that will be a hard sell.
March 26, 2001 - Monday
I shouldn't have been surprised, but my eyebrows went up when the Star-Bulletin editorialized this morning in favor of Hawaiian Electric's plan to put a new set of major power lines over a ridge at the back of Palolo Valley.The editorial followed a relatively lite story Friday on the very hot Waahila Ridge power line hearing, and a long business story on Saturday touting Hawaiian Electric's stock because of its high dividend yield. No mention in the latter story of the power line controversy, the heavy community opposition, or company statements that its power delivery infrastructure is so weak that the community risks blackouts if this new line isn't run quickly, an admission which should obviously be of concern to investors. Also no mention that the added cost of responding favorably to community concerns by running the line underground would easily have been covered by the company's losses in various unrelated and possibly ill-advised foreign ventures.
Then I recalled that S-B owner David Black's attorney, Jeff Watanabe, is vice-president and director of Black's Oahu Publications, and is also a director of Hawaiian Electric Industries, the parent company of Hawaiian Electric. Watanabe is a member of the HEI Board's executive committee, as well as chair of its nominating committee. In addition, according to HEI's latest annual report just mailed to stockholders, Watanabe and new S-B editorial page editor Richard Halloran are directors of HEI Power Corp, the subsidiary responsible for the foreign deals.
Very interesting. But probably just a coincidence, right?
It does make me wonder whether Halloran is still a director of HEI Power, and whether this fact should have been disclosed to readers along with the editorial opinion.
Not much to report. It's a quiet Sunday morning. The photo gallery was updated again early today. Enjoy.A friend suggested this exercise:
call information and ask for the number of the honolulu star-bulletin.
my experience is that no matter which department you ask for, you get the same number: 529-4700
it's hard to get through. busy signals rule.
but once you do, you find that you've dialed into a voicemail hub.
i went through the litany of choices, and found the newsroom in fourth position.
when i selected it, the recording said: "i'm sorry, we' can't complete your call at this time."
when i call a number directly, there is no answer.Letters to the editor have flowed all week in reaction to S-B editorial page editor Richard Halloran's attack on a student on day 2 of the new paper. The letters have been an interesting read. Worth checking through back issues.
What bothers me, despite Halloran's continued defense of his own behavior, is that the Star-Bulletin's new mouthpiece abused a student in order to attack his real target, the union representing Hawaii's public school teachers. His abuse of the student was simply a "cute" way to try to make his predetermined political point--that he apparently opposes teachers' collective effort to obtain a more favorable contract. The unfortunately student was simply roadkill in Halloran's race to stake out a position in opposition to the teachers. He could have done this directly. That would have at least been fair, and the HSTA can take care of itself. Instead he took this student's letter hostage and used it for his own ends.
Not a good way to introduce himself to the broader community of Star-Bulletin readers.
4:40 a.m. and Leo decides it's time to display the Siamese ancestry hiding among his dominant gray tiger genes. I shut him out of the room earlier, and now he's digging at the bedroom door and crying a pitiful wailing yowl. Lizzie departs the bed to see what the commotion is about, and now paws are reaching back and forth under the door. Kili abandons her cozy spot between the people and joins the action. Finally I drag out of bed, hoping to at least let Meda get another hour's rest. All the cats stream down the hall with me, but within minutes they've dispersed without explanation or fanfare. Leo finally eats and then exits to prowl the yard in the pre dawn hour. Wally steps out onto the front deck so that she can, after a minimal interval, prepare to hang on the screen signaling her special need for reentry assistance.
Lindsey, who's been out all night, jumps onto the railing on the front deck in order to scratch at the window next to the computer, where I've been sitting now for a few minutes. He wants in, but he coyly refuses to acknowledge the open door, waiting instead for me to come out, pick him up, and carry him across the threshold. He quickly claims a chair in the dining room, circles quietly, and settles right down. Lizzie takes up a position atop my Macintosh tower, a spot which she is soon to outgrow. I'm not sure where Kili has ended up. Silverman should show up soon for his early pass by the food dishes. What more can I say? Mornings are quite a zoo here.Several Advertiser staffers questioned the report that they've been told not to communicate with the Star-Bulletin. No so, they say.
Says one: "My friends at the Bulletin, having seen your diary, asked me if indeed I'd been instructed not to speak to people at the SB. I had not heard such a thing (and if I had, I'd have ignored it). I've asked around here, among people who've got their ears a little closer to the managerial ground than I do, and they hadn't heard it, either."
My source replies: "my earlier observation about no contact had to do with hna employees [who, with the dissolution of hna, are now Advertiser employees]. the ones who aren't as familiar with the system and with their own rights as reporters and editors might be. i get the feeling they're being bullied."
Another 'Tiser staffer took the opportunity to comment on the state of the two newsrooms after just a week of independent operation:
The bigger story at the moment, and the one with significant longer-term implications, is that there have been major changes in the management of both newspapers' news operations.At the Advertiser, we're working for decent and extremely competent people, and not coincidentally, we're putting out a hugely improved newspaper. (Take that at face value: Nobody who knows me would ever accuse me of being a cheerleader.)
The new Star-Bull management, on the other hand, refused to hire some of the paper's strongest journalistic assets. They pushed through a two-tiered union contract that ultimately will fill their newsroom -- if the Star-Bulletin stays in business -- with people willing to work for a wage no competent reporter or editor would accept. Now they think reporters (who do most of their work by phone) can share telephones. This, of course, will result in most reporters doing most of their work on their personal cell phones. Sort of like Hawaii's "second to none" public school system, where poorly paid teachers commonly buy classroom supplies out of their own pockets because they care about their students more than their dumb, Lexus-driving bosses do.
And so it goes in week 1 of the Honolulu newspaper war.
A friend spotted the Star-Bulletin and Gannett's Advertiser side by side in Waikiki last night and sent this photo along with some comments.
How to Shoot Yourself in the Foot
Prepare your morning edition, which will be distributed only in street stands.
Choose a lead story which is not very compelling.
Write a headline that is too wordy.
Use a serif type face, so it will be weaker than the sanserif bold face used by the competition.
Place it on the left side of the front page, and break it into several lines, so it runs well down the page to the fold.
Superimpose an image under part of it, so it will be even harder to read. Make sure the headline is positioned so as to end up under the nice new promo banner on the glass of the street stand, so as to obscure it beyond readability.
Neglect to put a cardboard backing behind the display paper, so its thinness will be emphasized by the fact that it flops over in the display frame.
Make sure it is next to the competition, the paper which is thick, upright, and carries a dramatic, bold, clear headline.
Guess which paper will sell.I would be interested in any reactions. Let me know.
Thanks for the comments received in response to yesterday's early morning cat musings, which ranged from suggestions of available water cannons to blow cats off of screen doors to appreciation for the "unconditional love" underlying the simple description of events.
I've been cat herding for 10 minutes after getting out of bed. First stop: feed Leo. Dry food in bowl on the counter. Then put some new food down for Wally. Pick up last three dishes from floor left over from last night's canned food feast and deposit in the sink. Try to sit down at computer. Lift Lizzie out of lap, get up and break logjam at the cat door, where Wally and Miki are blocking Silverman's entrance. Let Silverman in to eat. Put food in bowl for him. Close cat door so that Lizzie and Harry can't go out until after our walk, since they have taken to following us down the street if they're able. Let Lindsey in before he pulls the screen out of the front door. Put Lindsey in his executive dining room (my bathroom), get bowl of food, and shut door to prevent any fighting with Silverman. Stop Leo from harassing Silverman. Put Leo out. Let Silverman out. Let Wally out. Sit down at computer. Make room on lap for Lizzie. Such are the early mornings in our Kaaawa household.Pat Bigold flagged this job as purrfect for me during his scouting for employment:
Boston Sunday Globe AdEDITOR/WRITER
Are you a professional journalist/editor? Do you like cats? We're looking for someone to fill the top slot on a nationally distributed magazine devoted to cat wellness published in cooperation with a leading veterinary college. The successful candidate will be a self starter, hard working, a skilled writer, and will be versed in page production using current technologies. This is a great job for an independent, work-at-home editor who wants to join a dynamic, growing organization.I'm told that Star-Bulletin circulation problems now center on secured buildings, where Gannett's Hawaii Newspaper Agency was previously given two keys, one for the Advertiser carrier and one for the Star-Bulletin. But Gannett refused to transfer the second key to the Star-Bulletin after the sale, obstructing subsequent deliveries.
There are rumors of longtime subscribers, including relatives of staffers, not appearing on subscription lists, adding to a belief that Gannett produced a defective or incomplete list.
S-B reporters, meanwhile, are coping with a shortage of phones. There aren't enough, apparently due to a management design decision that it should be fine for several reporters to share a single phone at the same time. It might work for a weekly, and sharing a line is fine on different shifts, but when you're chasing sources on deadline and waiting for vital call backs, this penny pinching on phones must be a killer.
Advertiser staffers have reportedly been instructed not to communicate with friends in the Star-Bulletin newsroom, and S-B staffers have all signed statements that they agree not to divulge info that could put their employer in an unflattering light. Such measures obviously don't work, but apparently make someone up the chain of command feel more secure.
Not much news from the newspaper war.Reader interest is high, though, judging by statistics from StarBulletin.com, which got nearly a million hits on March 15, the first independent issue of the "new" Star-Bulletin, and 1.1 million hits on March 16. It came to a total of 5.25 million hits for the week (Mar 12-18). That's a very heavy load!
The first day of spring was marked by cold weather in Kaaawa and much of the rest of the state. Temperatures yesterday morning dropped below 70 degrees, and it seems like a repeat this morning. I've had to drag a heavy lined shirt out of the closet to fend off the cold, despite snickers I can already imagine from folks on the mainland.
The surf was also up along this coastline, with long swells cresting and breaking in deeper water far offshore, well outside normal surfing sites.
Kaaawa, March 20, 2001
I still haven't made much progress in deciding what's next for me, much less what kind of brainstorming process is most likely to yield results. The real problem is that I don't know what I want to do, or who I would like to become in this next round of life. With the lifting of the implicit constraints that went along with the regular job at the Star-Bulletin, it's time for the creation of options, but I'm not there yet. I'm still feeling my way towards a daily routine that works, and which can sustain a period of meddling with possibilities.And he did drag me out of bed at 4:30 this morning with no signs of remorse, evidence, perhaps, that the new strategy leaves something to be desired.
At home, I'm trying desperately to deal with Leo, who is obviously seeking attention through his frequent peeing on household items, usually occurring when we're around. We're talking the toaster, the roll of paper towels in the kitchen, my bathroom counter, etc.
My latest tact is to shower him with attention when he isn't leaving his telltale signs. I've got his favorite cat toy ready, and take every opportunity to pick it up and interact with him positively. No scolding, no mixed messages. So far, perhaps some modest change in behavior, but that could be just wishful thinking on my part.
RoadRunner appears to be completely out of commission this morning, at least out here in Kaaawa, so I'll be delayed in posting this once again.Bud Smyser died Monday morning about 4:30 a.m., just before I sat down to write yesterday's entry. The word was emailed to S-B staff a little later in the morning, and spread from there.
Here's a moment of silence in memory of Bud. As one S-B writer said to me in an email, "I love that old guy."
And then a little vignette from a friend:
Finally, I called HNA and asked why they billed me for a time period I already paid for, and the girl told me she had no records of any Star-Bulletin transactions: "they've already been sent over to the new owner".I explained that this business took place prior to the sale, and was therefor between us, not the new owner, and she still maintained she had no information about Star-Bulletin subscriptions or payments. Of course they have records of their transactions prior to March 15th, but they are telling the phone girls the records have all been sent to Black. I lost it and accused HNA of thievery and of tampering with my subscription. I asked her if she realized she worked for a bunch of greedy crooks out to ruin journalism in this country. She hung up on me.
Meanwhile, the Star-Bulletin is struggling to overcome the circulation woes. With any luck, the weekend provided some time to regroup and solve the startup problems.
Bud Smyser remained in critical condition last night, according to a story in the "breaking news" section of Star-Bulletin.com. Star-Bulletin staffers and others who know Bud have been devastated by the news.
All will be sending their thoughts in Bud's direction today as the news spreads, I'm sure.
It only took two days for the S-B's new editorial section editor, Richard Halloran, to make a blunder that has angered some readers. In a personal diatribe which appeared on Friday, Halloran belittled a letter received from a high school student in support of a raise for teachers. Using his new pulpit, Halloran noted misspellings in the letter, characterizing it as "badly written".
At least one online critic immediately blasted Halloran's treatment of the letter.
The letters to the editor section is INTENDED FOR THE READERS. This writer should be commended on his initiative for writing in to a newspaper, arguably the greatest public forum in this country. What is this kid to think, having exercised his first amendment right and his duty as a citizen to police government, now that he has been publicly ridiculed?Mr. Black should be worrying at this unnecessary squandering of goodwill. Obviously, the student thought enough about the Star-Bulletin to submit the letter to its pages, but after this shabby treatment, I wouldn't be surprised if this student, his or her circle of friends, and members of their extended families never buy a Star-Bulletin again.
For cat lovers only: I finally finished a few thoughts in memory of Hiwa, our black cat, who we lost three weeks ago. Stop by and take a look.
Late news. Bad news. Bud Smyser, who spent more than a half century with the Star-Bulletin and was still sharing his experience via a regular column, suffered a bad fall at home last night, apparently suffering a brain embolism. Bud, long an a advocate of the right to die, was removed from life support and is not expected to survive.
Bud Smyser with friends, 3/13/2001.
[The rest of this entry was posted earlier today, before I heard of Bud's fall.]
The last pages of the Newsroom Diary have been officially retired, although the entire diary beginning back in September 1999 remains online and accessible through the "Newsroom Diary Archive" link at the top of this page. This journal will continue, for now, without a name, since it's hard to apply a label while I'm not at all sure where it's going or what the plan is. One day at a time is the extent of current planning.There hasn't been a lot of good news for the Star-Bulletin since it began independent publication on Thursday. Despite heroic efforts by newsroom staffers to get the paper out on or near deadline, thousands of subscribers still haven't received a copy, and the avalanche of complaints has swamped the Star-Bulletin phones, and even blown out some phone service in the rest of the 529- exchange.
I noticed that Starbulletin.com added an easy way to report subscription problems online, apparently reflecting the extent of circulation woes.
One insider describes it this way:
They call all day and all night. They call any number listed in the hope of speaking to a human.They hit the Web site and email everyone whose email address they can find. They fill out any form that might reach anyone at the Bulletin. The messages are often supportive and understanding, and often outraged and enraged.
They walk in the front door of the Bulletin seeking anyone who will hear of their problem and they will not leave until they have spoken their piece, regardless of the fact that we've given them what they claim to seek: a Star-Bulletin.
They're not concerned about getting the paper; more concerned that someone knows that they have a problem and that they are long-time loyal subscribers who want their afternoon Bulletin, dammit! Not the morning Bulletin. Not the afternoon Advertiser.
Another reader says: "As for us, this is the third evening with no paper. Got the AM version. If I wanted a morning paper I'd already be an Advertiser subscriber."
And this report from Manoa:
No S-B home delivery either Thursday or Friday.No working phones at S-B all day Friday. Phone company gives out 2 different numbers, Neither works.
When you call the old S-B numbers in the book, The Advertiser answers to all of them and refuses to give the new S-B number.
Black told KHON-TV last night that the subscriber list received from Gannett when he bought the company was incomplete: "Unfortunately it isn't much of a list. There's no start dates on it, there's no stop dates for the customers. The amount they paid isn't clearly there."
Could be an unexpected Gannett tactic. Work to rule. Anything not itemized in specific and excruciating detail was not provided? It's looking that way to S-B folks, at least.
Problems continue for the new Star-Bulletin, which has been unable to get the paper delivered to all subscribers. First day problems were followed by more of the same on Friday, although a story about the continuing problems drifted quickly into damage control. [This last link will shift sometime on Saturday to the main news page of Starbulletin.com.]The story appearing in Starbulletin.com overnight quotes reports in glowing terms:
Senior Sales Representative Roni Yamagata described advertising sales as going "extremely well," and related anecdotes of her department's experiences.She said one sales representative walked into a client's office and received a standing ovation. Another client, shown her advertisement, was overcome with emotion, "she cried when we brought it to her," Yamagata said.
On the other hand, here's a contrary report from a disappointed reader of this diary:
We got no paper again this evening. We did get a PM Advertiser, tho, gratis.P. theorizes they drop the Advertiser off late and steal the Bulletin from the porch -- hence the motive behind the sudden free PM Advert home delivery. I think the Advertiser is just slicker than Black, for now.
Unfortunately, the Advertiser was about Waikiki, so I picked one up from a stand. Then had one at home. So the home score stands at: Star-Bulletin 0 Advertiser 2. Not at all what I had in mind for the historic changeover.
P. had many customers who did not get their regular home S-B -- the one his big sale ad was in, the ad costing him $2,000, the ad NOT in the Advertiser. The sale is over tomorrow and he has to explain to his boss why he made the buy. He's not happy that the sales rep (one he had been with from Midweek) did not come by as promised to discuss. I told him she meant to stop by, but her bosses sent her over to Verizon or First Hawaiian Bank to explain. They'll get to the little stores when they can.
Ain't life a gas?
One Star-Bulletin staffer described the scene in the newsroom as similar to a Civil Defense emergency shelter. All the essentials are there, but no one is sure where they are, and you just might have to crawl over somebody else to get to any of them.
FYI: Here's the info on why you were unable to reach ilind.net through most of today:From: "Brendan Brader - HostRocket.Com" <brendan@hrwebservices.net>
To: <customers@hostrocket.com>
Subject: A Message From HostRocket
Date: Sat, 17 Mar 2001 02:10:25 -0500Hello,
This message details the situation that was affecting your sites connectivity earlier today.
The Problem:
There was a substantial network outage earlier today which lasted several hours and affected approx. 70% of our users sites for several hours, and 100% for at least a few minutes. This network outage affected 500,000+ websites and was not isolated strictly to HostRocket Customers.The Cause:
The network outage earlier today which lasted for several hours was caused by a network problem with our upstream provider, VDI, and their upstream providers Level 3 and MCI. This was caused by a 'BGP Session Table' problem. BGP performs interdomain routing in Transmission-Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) networks. BGP is an exterior gateway protocol (EGP), which means that it performs routing between multiple autonomous systems or domains and exchanges routing and reachability information with other BGP systems. When this was down, the information could not get in our out of the data center even though things were fine on both sides of the problem.More information is available about BGP, what it is, and how it works, at this address:
http://www.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/doc/cisintwk/ito_doc/bgp.htmThe Fix:
This type of problem is not one that would be or will be a recurring one. This is not even the type of problem that would normally happen even once a year. We are taking steps to make sure that in the chance that if this happens again, the problem will be fixed in a much more timely manner by our upstream providers.Other Issues/Concerns:
A loop test was ran shortly after midnight on the line to ensure that everything was up and working correctly again, and this caused another 5-10 minutes of downtime.We greatly appreciate your patience during this situation, and assure you that we will make sure the parties who are in charge of making sure this type of situation does not happen and fixing it if it does happen, do a better job the next time around should this ever happen again. If you need to contact us about this please use a trouble ticket instead of replying to this email.
-The HostRocket Staff
And, hopefully, we will now all live happily ever after.
I've just moved beyond the final day and the newsroom diary, which is now officially behind me. Although I might still be able to share some glimpses into newsroom activities, they'll necessarily be second hand, and with no direct way to assess their validity. I'll probably have some comments on the way the daily newspaper competitors are executing their strategies. Beyond that, we'll just see where this goes.
More server or Internet problems this morning are preventing access to ilind.net. Hopefully they'll be cleared up soon so that this entry can get posted. [I'm just getting this entry up a bit after 7 p.m. Sorry for the delay, folks.]
Apparently few of the last "old" Star-Bulletin issue reached subscribers on Wednesday, and it appeared that almost none made it into street racks. The first "new" S-B left the newsroom just 15 minutes or so past deadline, but problems in production and distribution left thousands of subscribers without their copies of the historic issue. Our paper arrived just fine, first thing in the morning. Apparently we're in the zone outside of Honolulu that's getting the morning edition, because of fears that the regular afternoon run couldn't get here in time.
I saw papers in street racks along Kapiolani, although I didn't see anyone scrambling for copies of either the S-B or Advertiser. I have to doubt whether street sales came anywhere close to projections.
In the past, Advertiser street racks have remained stocked all day, so I don't think they will pick up many additional sales with their added afternoon edition. Most buyers don't have a clue about different editions. They just buy "the paper". So at least as far as street sales go, Gannett is spending big money for little payoff in terms of sales.
The majority of Star-Bulletin racks, on the other hand, sat empty most days until close to noon, or displayed a day old paper that wouldn't sell. So the new AM edition will be a big change and should generate additional sales for the S-B, as well as making timely distribution on the neighbor islands possible. So Black should be getting some bang for his additional bucks.
I've been getting calls from a few folks (including some business owners) who say they've complained to the Star-Bulletin after hearing that I've been dropped from the staff. The company line is simply that its a confidential personnel action and they can't really discuss it, implying some underlying dark secret issue. But thanks to all my friends for trying.
Another staffer called yesterday with this assessment of their own underlying sadness at the way the S-B managed the transition and the terminations. This may not be an exact quote, because I left the notes at my office, but it is a very good paraphrase: "At least Rupert came into the newsroom and stood face to face with us when he announced plans to close the paper. He looked you in the eye and told you the bad news. Compare that to the form letters sent out by our management. It's so sad."
Meanwhile, I located most of the wandering cables and connectors, and got my computer up and running, only to find the internal modem has stopped functioning since I last used it. So I'm still short of full functioning, and have to rely on the iBook or Palm for email. But this is a problem that can be solved.
I'm also starting through my contact list to let folks know that I'm not with the Star-Bulletin any longer. I'm hoping that a round of conversations will help me get a better sense of community needs and opportunities. It will at least be an interesting way to spend a couple of weeks.
Diane Chang got her first column online at Dianechang.com.
And, just FYI, all back entries in the Newsroom Diary should be accessible. Just choose "Past Diary Entries" at the top of this page, and then select the dates you're looking for. If you run into links that don't work, please let me know so that I can make a quick fix.
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