Support the Weekly

Diary

Predators

by Joan Conrow | Jan 30, 2013

Oahu Publications, Inc. (OPI), which publishes the Honolulu Star-Advertiser and MidWeek, has gained control of Kauai print media with its recent acquisition of The Garden Island newspaper.

Kauai residents had mixed reactions, ranging from hopes that the sale might improve the quality of the island’s oldest newspaper to fears that the paper ultimately will be closed and coverage relegated to the Star-Advertiser.

“This could be the end of a newspaper here, even if it is a pretty crappy one,” wrote Andy Parx, a Kauai journalist and blogger, in an email to the Weekly. “I’m just worried there will be even less local Kauai news. The Star-Advertiser ignores us now and doesn’t even have a Kauai correspondent. The question is whether it’s better to have the current editorial control by the Chamber of Commerce–as they freely admit internally is the case now–or to have the broader corporate control of Conrad Black.”

OPI is purchasing the paper, which was founded in 1902, from Lee Enterprises. Terms of the sale were not disclosed, and the deal is expected to close on Feb. 11. An employee of The Garden Island said all staff members must reapply for their positions. OPI announced that 14 Kauai jobs will be eliminated when production and printing functions are moved to the Star-Advertiser’s Kapolei facility.

Laurie Carlson, publisher of Honolulu Weekly, expressed concerns over yet another independent press being closed down in the Islands, consolidating the printing monopoly of larger operations. “One of the ways that smaller newsprint publications are disadvantaged is lack of a competitive printing market in Hawaii,” she wrote in an email. “On the Big Island, the operators of the two dailies will print no other publications that would compete with them. On Oahu, the Star-Advertiser, like Gannett before them, offers prohibitive pricing for competitors. That is why the Weekly prints on Maui,” Carlson said.

OPI first gained a foothold on Kauai in May 2010, when it bought The Honolulu Advertiser and replaced its popular weekly publication, Kauai People, with MidWeek. At the time, MidWeek editor-in-chief Don Chapman said OPI planned to weaken The Garden Island by aggressively pursuing the weekly supermarket advertising inserts that were the newspaper’s bread and butter

COMMENTS

We often print online comments in our “Letters to the Editor” section of Honolulu Weekly. While submitted letters are often edited for length and clarity, online comments we use are printed entirely as they are written for the website. If you do not wish for your comment to be used in Honolulu Weekly print issues, please write “Don’t Print” at the end of your comment. For questions, e-mail editorial@honoluluweekly.com. Thank you!

blog comments powered by Disqus

This week

Derelict Downtown

For as long as we can remember, Chinatown has been notorious for drugs, homelessness and filthy streets. Some claim nothing has changed–and that it never will.

Sweet Ride

Bicyclists have long been overlooked by four-wheel riders on Honolulu’s congested streets. In the gleaming, armored pecking order of the road, cyclists are too often dismissed as lane hogs, hand-signaling nuisances and unfortunates who can’t afford cars.

Hoopili miss

The fate of some 1,525 acres of land at Hoopili in ‘Ewa may have been decided last Wednesday in Hawaii’s First Circuit Court. The decision might have gone differently, but the appellant attorneys’ strategy seemed to collapse as Judge Rhonda Nishimura picked it apart based on technical errors.

Housing First $

Last Thursday, May 9, the Caldwell administration revealed its action plan for solving Honolulu’s homeless problem. But at the City Council’s budget meeting the same day, Budget chair Ann Kobayashi wanted to know where the money for “Housing First” (see Cover Story, pg.

Do it Wright

The Mayor Wright Housing project has been slated for major redevelopment by the Hawaii State Housing Authority (HSHA); requests for qualifications will be going out to developers in three to six months. Nonprofit group Faith Action for Community Equity (FACE) wants to make sure the project’s tenants have a say in the redevelopment process, which could include major renovations or a total rebuild.

Street Disconnect

The Honolulu City Council held a special Committee on Transportation meeting on Tuesday, May 7, to go over its Complete Streets initiative with input from the department directors of Design and Construction (DDC), Planning and Permitting (DPP) and Transportation Services (DTS). At prior meetings, including the Moiliili workshop, community members pressed the idea of combining Complete Streets with Caldwell’s repaving projects, which Dan Burden of the Walkable and Livable Communities Institute and some councilmembers have said makes sense.

Stopping Growth

Not much to agree with my friend Doc Berry (“Limits of Growth,” April 17). None of the scenarios he posits will ever materialize.

Get it together

In your Diary of May 8 (“End of the 27th)” you reported on SB 1214, passed by the Legislature. In their nimble way, the Legislature tacked the wheel boot prohibition on a bill that was intended to abolish the Commission on Transportation.

Look both ways

On Friday, May 3, at 3:45 p.m., I was driving town bound through the Wilson tunnel on the Likelike. I was parallel to another car, and there were several other cars following closely behind me.

Thank you!

Congratulations Honolulu Weekly on the recent Pai award for investigative reporting (“Boss GMO,” Jan. 4, 2012).

Truth be told

When the biofuel guys say that costs are “confidential” (“Big-foot Biofuel,” May 8), I reply that since I am the one who is going to end up paying the cost, I have a right to know. Frankly, when everybody tries to hide the costs, I smell rat …

Nature’s beauty

The Foster Botanical Garden never ceases to inspire for an urban setting it is like a step back in time (“See the Flora,” May 8). If Koko Crater Botanical Garden contains the world’s largest plumeria collection as suggested, it may be thanks in part to the Prussian born Dr.