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Since November 2, 1999
If this counter is close to 100,000, act now and you
could be a winner! Print out a copy of this page showing
the counter. Mac users can save a picture of the screen by
typing the key combination Command-Shift-3, which saves a
file on your hard drive called "Picture 1" (or 2 or 3) in
pict format. Maybe there's a similar PC command. But
whatever method you use--submit the evidence of your visit
by email or snail mail, and the one closest to being visitor
number 100,000 will win a Star-Bulletin "Still here!"
T-shirt (XL), a jar of my mother's ono-ono mango chutney,
and perhaps other stuff yet to be identified. If you've got
a prize to contribute, let
me know! Oh--send email to diary@ilind.net
or via postal carrier to Ian Lind, 1750 Kalakaua Ave #1306,
Honolulu, HI 96826.
It was another green flash morning yesterday. A great way to start the day.There will be some changes in the Star-Bulletin beginning next week intended to "make the paper easier to read and navigate", according to an announcement appearing in tomorrow's paper and set to newsroom staff yesterday.
The contents of some sections will be shuffled. Classifieds will become part of the business section. The weather page will move to the back of the features section. A new weekly page about schools will be added, produced by teenagers from throughout the state, with Mililani High School journalists the first to display their stuff. We'll have to wait and see any visual the changes when they appear on Monday.
And a group of Pacific Business News refugees, including controversial reporter Malia Zimmerman, have announced their intent to begin an online publication, Hawaii Reporter, starting in October. They promise "investigative business and government news and the most current and detailed public record site in the state of Hawaii." Public records data will be available by subscription, and they intend to offer custom research services as well.
Yesterday's sunrise yielded the first "green flash" in this new season, as well as intense colors reflected in the clouds and sky.
Although this is normally the time of year that we're sliding towards Hawaii's traditional rainy season, there isn't much feel of rain in the air. It's been hot and humid, but the humidity isn't turning into rain. Hopefully that will change, but forecasters don't seem optimistic.
Sen. Les Ihara ran across this interesting little site, http://www3.co.honolulu.hi.us/vote. Enter the name of any street statewide, and it's translated into the relevant political districts county. That's handy information to have, at least once in a while. Here's what Haahaa St in Kaaawa returned--
HOUSE ADDRESS
Polling Place
District
Precinct
Congressional
Senatorial
Council
(ALL) 51-400 to 51-499 HAAHAA ST
HAUULA ELEM SCH (54-046 KAMEHAMEHA HWY)
46
02
2
23
02
One response to yesterday's message about the Star-Bulletin's morning shift points out that even when it was exclusively an afternoon paper, much of the S-B's daily edition was prepared the day before, including features, sports and editorial sections, as well as feature packages appearing in the news section.
The counter at the bottom of the page keeps ticking. We've passed 98,600 visitors and are quickly approaching that 100,000 mark. I'm wondering if it will be possible to identify the 100,000th visitor...
We're hurtling towards the 2nd anniversary of the September 16 announcement by Gannett and former Star-Bulletin owner Rupert Phillips that they intended to close the newspaper. In an interesting confluence of events, it appears that this page will get its 100,000 visitor at just about the same time, based on the official count. At the current rate, it will hit the 100,000 mark between Sept.12 and 15th.The following message comes from a thoughtful observer of the Star-Bulletin:
Interesting note that afternoon papers are, in fact profitable, just not highly profitable.In reality, the Bulletin is a morning, not an afternoon, paper. Nearly all of its content is generated overnight. And with the requirements of early press runs there's not much of a chance to update the final edition. Have you noticed the words "Final Edition" is conspicuously absent from the front page? And have you noticed that all of Saturday's paper is what happened on Friday? It's no longer same-day coverage. [note: the writer was wrong on one point. The "Final Edition" header does appear on the p.m. weekday paper, but not on Saturday or Sunday, which have a single morning edtion.]
This newspaper war has David Black trying to match some of Gannett's moves. Putting out a morning and afternoon edition is one of them and the cost is high. The news staff, which used to put out an afternoon paper six times a week, is now being stretched to put out both an afternoon and morning paper seven times a week. Add the tabloids on the weekend and you wind up with more people being shifted to the job of assembling the newspaper and fewer people out actually trying to cover the news.
Overhead could be greatly reduced if Black sticks to being an afternoon or morning newspaper. More staffers would be involved in the act of gathering news instead of just processing it. And just one shift would be needed to print and deliver the product instead of two.
When a smaller entity faces a much larger adversary, it can't win through brute force. It wins by using superior agility combined with careful strategy. For the Star-Bulletin victory may have to be defined differently. Perhaps it might not be able to grab the lion's share of the readers. But it can certainly assure itself its share of the territory if it strives to serve those who, for decades, have preferred to read their news in the afternoon.
We'll see if that spawns additional discussion.
And Jim Manke, assistant to the director of the UH public relations office, wrote to "correct the record" regarding UH President Dobelle's contacts with Manoa faculty.
"He's scheduled a 'y'all come' meeting with Manoa faculty at the next available opportunity - a meeting of the Manoa faculty congress at 2 p.m. Thursday, October 11, in Kuykendall Auditorium," Jim said in an email.
Jim notes: "Many faculty are not on campus during the summer (Dobelle's been here since July 2), but in spite of that the President - during his first nine and a half weeks - has met with faculty senate chairs and senators, chairs of departments, other faculty on an individual and group basis on numerous occasions - faculty from all over the system."
"Even as I write this," Jim writes, "he's meeting with faculty, staff and students at Maui Community College in an open forum.
But Manoa faculty, who make up the bulk of the system's academic base, are keenly aware that he's floating proposals of all sorts before groups like the Chamber of Commerce months before most faculty will have a chance to even lay eyes on the guy in person.
Of course, much of this problem stems from the absurd secrecy that surrounded the entire search process that ended in Dobelle's hiring. Due to the secrecy of the search, neither faculty, students, nor members of the community had any opportunity to meet or evaluate the candidates prior to the hiring decision being made. This creates a difficult legacy for Dobelle, as it did for his predecessor, Ken Mortimer, also the product of a secret search and interview process.
It's quite an interesting situation brewing with this self-described politician at the helm of our academic flagship.
Finally, attention, flashers:
If you flash and drive in Kaaawa, you'd better slow down and stay under 25. At least I think that's what the sign says.
It's the best bit of roadside ambiguity I've run into recently, posted along the ocean side of Kamehameha Highway just across from Kaaawa School. That's the school in the background.
Click for larger photo
Check out just about any local news source and it's obvious that we're lousy with cop shop reporters. Cops and courts still dominate broadcast news and fill a good number of column inches.So why hasn't anyone explained the politics of the battle royal going on inside the Honolulu Police Department? Although there's been no shortage of reporting on recent allegations of stolen food, disagreement within the police union over the appropriate response, counter allegations of similar conduct by those officers who have been pointing fingers, but all these upheavals in the ranks haven't been put in political context.
Someone familiar with the department has to identify the factions, the issues and personalities that have divided them in the past, their political ties and alliances, and how these underlying dynamics are playing out in the current headlines. This is the stuff that's necessary to begin to understand the situation. Until we get some perspective and background, we're only getting fed random events at HPD, not news.
The September issue of Island Business magazine carries part 1 of a two part series on Honolulu's newspaper war, written by freelancer Mike Markrich. It's a balanced and sobering view of the situation.
David Cole, publisher of a newspaper industry newsletter, told Markrich: "One of the basic misconceptions of the daily newspaper business is that afternoon newspapers went out of business because they lost money. That's a false premise. Most of them made 5 percent. That was not considered a good enough return of investment for most people for the amount of money invested and that's why those papers closed. If 5 percent is enough for Mr. Black to buy the Star-Bulletin and he makes 50 percent off MidWeek, it might very well be enough to make the deal work."
Next month, in its final issue, Island Business will attempt to unravel competing circulation claims and what they mean, an appropriate farewell for editor Peter Wagner, himself a refugee from the old Star-Bulletin.
And new UH President Evan Dobelle held an open session with students yesterday, and reportedly said he wants to continue meeting with them monthly. But Dobelle has yet to appear at a similar open meeting with faculty, and has attempted to avoid it until November.
A quick trip to the vet determined that Ms. Kili's hair loss wasn't due to any exotic causes, just a new reaction to plain old fleas.
Ms. Kili wasn't happy about the trip to Kaneohe, although our favorite vet, Leianne Lee Loy, was real nice to her. Dr. Lee Loy is a Kamehameha and UH graduate who went off to veterinary school in Missouri before returning to practice at VCA Kaneohe Animal Hospital.
Ms. Kili with her favorite vet
Diane Chang won't be writing any more of her "Changing Hawaii" columns, according to a brief notice posted on her web site (www.dianechang.com) today:Message to readers, Sept. 3, 2001: Mahalo for reading these past few months. There will be no more online columns. Time for both you and I to move on. Love and aloha, always, for your past support and best wishes. DianeShe wrote over two dozen columns since leaving the confines of the Star-Bulletin in March, and shared them via a fine looking site. But she stopped writing at the end of June, when she announced it time for "vacation".
Today's announcement means another voice lost from the already small community of those with critical views, and we're all the worse for it. Hey, it's getting lonely out here.
If you enjoyed Diane's writing, take a minute and let her know. And if you haven't read her before, stop and Her email address is: DianeChang@aol.com.
We stopped for a few minutes last night to remember our cat, Buster, who died on Labor Day a year ago. His life made for quite a tale. Buster's Tale.
One of my friends is still really bothered by the Advertiser's reported circulation numbers. How can they have lost Sunday sales, while gaining thousands of daily sales? Sunday usually leads the way. Doesn't make sense, he says.Then a couple of days ago I stopped by to see my parents. They were typical Star-Bulletin subscribers prior to March 15. They got the S-B delivered daily, and the Advertiser on Sunday. Now they complain about all the newspapers they're dealing with. The daily Advertiser has been delivered for free, added automatically to their Sunday subscription, even though they switched over to the new Star-Bulletin. They recall being told that they would get the free Advertiser for 6 months.
If their experience is typical, it would explain the latest data. Star-Bulletin subscribers were already buying the Sunday Advertiser, so there wasn't much room for growth there. Circulation gains came by giving former S-B subscribers free daily Advertisers. That could account for virtually the entire reported increase. And if the offer only extended for 6 months, it would explain why Gannett paid to have a special circulation audit done which could be completed before the 6-month freebie period expired.
It makes me want to take a very close look at the reported numbers. Can someone send a copy my way?
I did manage to get the photo gallery updated yesterday. Surprise--a few more cats! Enjoy.
Click here
About 100 people gathered at a Portlock home last night to celebrate the 10th birthday of the Honolulu Weekly with publisher Laurie Carlson.
We were treated to a spectacular sunset followed quickly by a full moon, as well as food, music, and interesting conversations. I received quite a few comments on the cover story dissecting Hawaiian Electric that I had in the Weekly last week. It isn't available online yet, but will be soon.
It was quite a bit different to see the sun actually set, since in Kaaawa it retreats behind the mountains hours before sunset, which we experience vicariously through reflected light and shadows.
Portlock sunset--that's the back of Diamond Head in the distance.
Someone with a good sense of humor wrote this week using the name "Mr. Leo Silverman" with a further reaction to the deal between Gannett's Honolulu Advertiser and KHNL (Channel 8).channel 8 seems to do a lot of its stories by going to a particular business, mentioning it a lot and interviewing someone there extensively. tonight, for instance, they did a story on water conservation that prominently featured city mill and one on tires that pimped lex brody's. are they just lazy, or are these less-than-coincidentally among the station's advertisers? probably the wave of the future.With that said, I've got to sit down with a stack of cat books and try to figure out why Ms. Kili is losing hair at the base of her tail. Hopefully I'll find a likely explanation, or else it's another trip to the vet, which none of us enjoy.
Another round of dog photos from our morning walks got posted yesterday, and hopefully I'll have another photo gallery update up later today.
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