May 1, Monday

May Day begins our 7th month of extended life after the scheduled closing date of the Star-Bulletin. Despite all that has gone on, it doesn't seem that we are any closer to a viable scenario for saving the paper in the longer term. That's really an emotionally exhausting realization. It has been an endless, variable speed emotional treadmill since September 15. It's a wonder we're surviving at all.

And in San Francisco, another round in the Examiner-Chronicle saga gets underway today in U.S. District Court as the hearing begins on the final legal challenge to the sale of the Examiner. The nonjury trial will hear arguments by unsuccessful bidder Clint Reilly that the proposed sale is a sham and dooms the Examiner to certain financial failure. This is a case that we'll all be watching closely.

60 Minutes did its segment on the Bishop Estate (nka Kamehameha Schools) yesterday and, as expected, delivered a nice plug for the Star-Bulletin as they only thing they couldn't control. It was an otherwise unexceptional and uninsightful report, but getting that credit from former estate trustee Henry Peters was great.

 

May 2, Tuesday

Perspective always helps. It's been one of those terrible mornings where we're awakened by the sound of our Kaaawa fire company heading out on an early morning run, then 30 minutes later, a medivac helicopter landing at Swanzy Beach Park to pick up an accident victim for transport over the mountains into Honolulu. The narrow, winding roads along this windward coast claim another driver. What's worse, with nature's little sense of irony, it is promising to be a beautiful dawn, with color already painting the eastern sky.

No matter what happens at the Star-Bulletin today, we'll have a better day than the one these folks are having.

I'm indebted to a colleague for pointing out the destructive psychological dynamic that has been in play since September in the building we share with the Honolulu Advertiser and the Hawaii Newspaper Agency. In the initial weeks after the announcement of the Star-Bulletin's closing, there was a common sense of loss that hung over both newsrooms. Folks across the hall were as shocked as we were, and we could meet in the halls and share our woes.

As the months have passed, though, it would be fair to say that the level of anxiety, frustration and, occasionally, anger have risen in our newsroom, while folks across the hall at the Advertiser have gotten correspondingly sensitive to the rumors about what we're saying about them. What a complex interactive spiral. We're feeling insecure and angry, with reason, but they're also feeling insecure and angry, and, as Gannett employees, with reason as well.

I'm not sure how we dig ourselves out of this hole. Don't be shy about contacting me and offering suggestions that I might share on these pages.

Testimony in the first day of the San Francisco Chronicle-Examiner trial is described in today's Chronicle. Will we ever be able to write Hawaii's version of this tale?

 

May 3, Wednesday

Sign of life: A new assistant city editor will be joining our staff on May 15. She's got experience, which we can use at this point, and her arrival feels like an affirmation of our continued publishing existence.

Much of yesterday was spent chortling over disclosures from San Francisco as they arrived on the wire, as news flashes circulated thru office email. My favorite was the description of the "blowfish strategy," corporate puffery of various kinds to create the appearance of a more formidable foe, and the quote of the day, which I can only paraphrase after failing to find it in my brief search this morning. Something like: "We came out of the bushes screaming, whether carrying spears or not."

Sounds a lot like our newsroom attitude.

 

May 4, Thursday

The newsroom was buzzing over the Chronicle/Examiner trial events. Once again, staff messages announced major AP updates. Somehow our favorite items haven't survived long enough to get into print. Yesterday AP reported that a newspaper agency exec lied when he submitted an affidavit to the court claiming huge losses would result from an injunction delaying Hearst's purchase of the Chronicle. In court, he admitted that no economic analysis had been done and the figures were essentially guesses based on numbers floating around. Could be perjury, one of the rewrites said.

"Two up, two down" was the obvious response to the rapid-fire spectacle of newspaper execs stepping--or, more properly, stomping--on their privates in public.

Would a trial in the Star-Bulletin case be as revealing? We can only hope. But the whole scene must have sent some Hawaii Newspaper Agency brass rushing to the restrooms on the 3rd floor. Who's going to take the witness stand and, under oath, explain the claim that the entire cost of publishing the Star-Bulletin is a straight loss, and nothing but a loss, to HNA?

But this must all look different up close and personal. It's hard to imagine how the reporters in San Francisco are feeling. The lead to Rob Morse's column in today's Examiner says it straight: "Furious. Heartsick. Embarrassed. Depressed."

A couple of signs were spotted hanging on the fence of the parking lot behind the news building on Saturday. Origin unknown, but sentiments appreciated. This photo by a S-B staffer who passed it on to me yesterday.

 

May 5, Friday

Apologies for not getting this posted this morning, but RoadRunner's server that handles these user pages wasn't responding between 5 & 7 a.m., so I was stuck. So here's what I had written 14 hours ago:

Everyone's searching for clues in daily reports out of the San Francisco newspaper trial. The Examiner's Seth Rosenfeld described the decision to provide a subsidy to the buyer in that case:

And after Hearst could find no paying takers for The Examiner, Asher said he figured it would be better to sell it for a "negative purchase price," meaning Hearst would pay the buyer.

By then, Hearst had encountered not only local political opposition, but unexpected scrutiny from the U.S. Department of Justice's antitrust division.

That sounds a lot like the situation here, and leaves a glimmer of hope that Gannett & Liberty will be under pressure to follow a similar course if they hope to end the legal challenges to their plan to close the Star-Bulletin.

Added tonight: My colleague, Peter Wagner, managed to get a story in our 2nd edition on the selection of a broker to handle the marketing of the Star-Bulletin. It was an amazing feat, and he pulled it off on deadline.

 

May 6, Saturday

Who says there's no competition in this JOA? Yesterday's alignment of planets doesn't seem to have done much to us or for us, except delivering the satisfaction of beating the Advertiser on several key local stories. In addition to the scoop on the appointment of a broker for the Star-Bulletin, we were able to confirm the resignation of the University of Hawaii president on deadline, and we reported on the short list of finalists to head a large Catholic high school in Honolulu (which just happens to have one of the top prep football team in the nation, and all of the problems that attend to that status in a small place like Honolulu). And after being blocked from the local-girl-makes-movie story of a former Hawaii dancer landing a major role in "Center Stage" because the story had been promised to the Advertiser, we were able to make a preemptive strike using a NYT syndicated story. By the time the 'Tiser's new "Ohana" (family) section rolls out on Sunday with "Center Stage" on the cover, it will read like old news to Star-Bulletin subscribers.

Staffers in our newsroom were feeling great by the end of the day. TGIF.

The weekend started with rain early this morning which soon passed over the coast, leaving behind clear waters and wonderful colors.

An interesting perspective on the SF Examiner's future comes from Online Journalism Review columnist Ken Layne. His column is irreverent, interesting, and full of informative links.

 

May 7, Sunday

It must be a punishment for my recent transgressions. We're newspaperless this morning after HNA failed to deliver our Sunday Advertiser. I suspect (without any factual basis) that this treatment is reserved for Star-Bulletin subscribers who add on the Sunday Advertiser, like we do.

The SF Examiner's Seth Rosenfeld has a pretty good summary of the week's events in the Chronicle-Examiner court case.

Things are going to move quickly, or not at all, in the effort to sell the Star-Bulletin. Now that the broker is selected, potential buyers have to submit written intentions to bid by the end of May. Potential buyers deemed qualified with then be notified, and will have just two weeks to submit final bids. It would be hard to sell an apartment on a fast-track schedule like that, so selling a newspaper will be quite a feat. Our collective fingers are crossed.

 

May 8, Monday

This is Hiwahiwa, one of the eight cats currently part of our Kaaawa household. More importantly, she's my lesson in surviving and beating the odds. Those are important lessons in the Star-Bulletin's current circumstances. She was so sick early last year that our vet warned she was unlikely to survive. She has a liver infection that months of antibiotics in various combinations failed to zap, and she still has blood test results with wild numbers. But she never gave up, and when she got close I responded with fresh fish fed by hand and other treats. Sometimes she would eat just a tiny bit, then another tiny bit an hour later. I would get up several times a night to keep the tiny bits going down. It was a constant struggle to adapt to changing tastes and moods, to find reasons to keep going. And she has survived. A day at a time. Now she's eating almost normally, requiring just a little extra encouragement. Like the Star-Bulletin. It can be done. Despite national trends, and expert predictions.

Of course, the black cat is also a symbol used by anarchists and anarchist-oriented labor activists, and has long been associated with the IWW. Hiwa doesn't know that history, but she probably should.

 

May 9, Tuesday

There's a crucial story in today's SF Chronicle that spells out the antitrust implications of the testimony in the Chronicle-Examiner trial that's been prompting boisterous behavior in our newsroom for the last week. Chronicle writer Reynolds Holding shows how the pieces are being put in place to potentially sustain the antitrust challenge. Newspaper executives within the JOA apparently assumed they were beyond any antitrust challenge and never seem to have worried about niceties like arms-length deals. Now, on the witness stand, their actions take on a whole new meaning when placed into a new legal context.

It is obvious that the same is true of the dealings between Gannett and Liberty Newspapers Ltd. Partnership, from the 1993 sale to Liberty through to September's deal to close us down. The San Francisco case takes on a precedent setting character for us here in Honolulu. The outcome will certainly impact on Gannett's negotiating stance here. If the SF case is thrown out of court, Gannett can be expected to hold to its hard line. However, anything short of that will ratchet up the pressure. The beauty of the unfolding process is awesome, despite our vulnerable position in the midst of it all.

 

May 10, Wednesday

The quote of the day comes from former Louisiana Governor Edwin Edwards after being convicted on 17 counts of racketeering, extortion, conspiracy to commit extortion, wire fraud, mail fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering during negotiations over selection of an operator for the state's casino in New Orleans:

``Life is full of ups and downs,'' he said. ``Mine are just larger and more public than most.''

More on the "mystery" of continuing circulation woes: Another Star-Bulletin staffer reports receiving a call from a telemarketer offering a heavily discounted trial subscription to the Honolulu Advertiser. After the sales pitch, the telemarketer tried to close the deal. "Can we sign you up for the Advertiser?"

"What about the Star-Bulletin?", asks our guy.

"Oh, yeah, I was going to mention the Star-Bulletin...." was the answer.

In San Francisco yesterday, the judge asked attorneys in the Chronicle-Examiner case to submit possible remedies. These should be interesting, as it's not your typical antitrust case where the obvious answer would be to split up the offending monopoly. How much further will the court push the boundaries of existing case law? More signposts of what could be ahead in the case of the Star-Bulletin.

 

May 11, Thursday

More tales of circulation woes arrived in response to yesterday's entry.

#1: A friend received a call from Hawaii Newspaper Agency sales asking about taking the Advertiser-Starbulletin (like it was one word). He asked which one she was selling, she said they were both the same paper so it didn't make a difference. He asked to speak to her manager, who got on the phone. My friend asked what the deal was and the HNA guy said: Oh, she's new and doesn't understand the difference......

#2: Two friends have tried to switch subscriptions from 'Tiser to us... and were told they couldn't do it because of a lack of carriers in the area. (Kaneohe Bay Drive and Maunawili). They told the HNA rep that the next door neighbors get the Bulletin, so what's the problem? HNA said they'd get back to them.

Incompetence? Orchestrated incompetence? Its getting to the point that we need the equivalent of election monitors to move in, observers from our team to routinely watch HNA's training, telemarketing, circulation, and other functions.

 

May 12, Friday

Yesterday's bombshell from Denver, announcing formation of a joint operating agreement, was a stunner. I'm not sure that any of us really knew how to process the news. And the proposed JOA has an unusual structure, with each partner sharing 50-50 ownership of each newspaper. How that is going to promote continued newsroom competition is a bit hard to perceive.

And from San Francisco, Examiner reporter Seth Rosenfeld reports on testimony that continued competition between the Chronicle and Examiner is costing the city the opportunity of having one superior, better funded newspaper. It's the same argument made by HNA and Gannett about the Honolulu Advertiser. It makes sense, except that a surviving monopoly newspaper loses its incentive to reach for excellence, especially with the ultra-bottom line orientation that Gannett is so famous for. If they don't have to spend, nobody in our newsroom expects them to do it.

Overheard at a high school journalism luncheon on Thursday: Hawaii Newspaper Agency general manager Dennis Francis outed himself as a daily reader of these pages. Hey, welcome, Dennis.

I'm told Francis leapt up from a luncheon table in mock horror in order to reach for a promotional balloon which displayed an Advertiser logo. After turning it around to reveal a Star-Bulletin logo on the opposite side, he expressed relief because, he said, it meant he wouldn't have to read a bunch of "whining" about it in future journal entries.

I'm trying to imagine how these eight months of daily ramblings read to someone in his position. Must feel a bit like slumming with the Luddites, I would think. It's a hard juxtaposition to come to terms with.

  
The day needed some color.

May 13, Saturday

Today's online edition of the Rocky Mountain News has details of their new JOA with the Denver Post, including financial data for the News, noting that the bulk of reported losses came from depreciation, which I can imagine some viewing as "paper" losses. There's also the full text of the JOA application filed with the Department of Justice an an up to date listing of remaining JOAs across the country.

There are some interesting parallels to our situation. An accompanying story reports that the News, which is designated as the "failing newspaper," walked away with twice the awards of the financially healthy Post in SPJ's statewide competition. Sounds familiar, doesn't it?

And the ubiquitous attorney Alan Marx shows up in the JOA application, chanting the "statistics of dying newspapers" mantra on behalf of MediaNews Group, Inc, owner of the Denver Post.

 

May 14, Sunday

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that we'll have to make some specific moves to overcome the bad vibes that have developed between staff in our newsroom and folk's over at the Advertiser. With Guild contract negotiations under, conflicts among ourselves will just strengthen Gannett's hand. You can bet your last buck that no one in our newsroom wants to do that, whatever other considerations might exist. So I would guess there will be eager participation in efforts to bridge the existing gap.

No indications this past week of any potential buyers emerging from the woodwork. There have been repeated rumors over the past 6 months of investment groups circling, but nothing concrete.

The SF Examiner has another good analysis of the ongoing public relations nightmare being caused by admissions in the ongoing newspaper trial there. Hey, Gannetteers, check it out and imagine the trial scenario here in Honolulu.

 

May 15, Monday

On the afternoon of September 15, we first heard the "rumor" and later confirmed the planned closing of the Star-Bulletin. Things appeared very grim, and I never thought the paper would survive until today. In fact, I had a small wager with Stirling Morita, our night city editor, that we would not survive six months. Luckily, I lost the bet and now owe Stirling lunch at a restaurant of his choice.

The feline-oriented among you might want to check these mugshots of our current cohabitants in Kaaawa, which I prepared for our new cat sitter.

I'll be on the mainland again this week, and it turns out only one other person is taking any time off this month. In fact, it looks like most staffers are deferring vacations so far this year and sticking close to home. Perhaps its the uncertainty, perhaps a desire to take cash instead of accrued vacation if we hit the end of our road during the year. It's just one of those little anomalies that begs for explanation.

I walked over to say hello to a neighbor yesterday after spotting him out in the yard. He's real sympathetic to our situation after being injured and out of work for several months last year. So after some casual chitchat he puts on a serious face and asks the question: "So, how are things going for you at the Advertiser?"

You've got to be polite and understanding when it happens, but the continuing confusion of us and them, the public perception of "The newspaper" as a generic term, is like a kick in the ribs every time it occurs.

 

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