Saturday, June 28, 2008

What Now? Part Three

A 23 June post on HunterBishop.com mentions this:

Also in these comments from Tiffany was the agenda for the County Council's Human Services and Economic Development Committee meeting at 9:30 a.m. July 1 in Hilo, where the closing of the Hawaii Island Journal will be discussed:

Comm. 1296:
PRESENTATION BY HAWAI‘I ISLAND JOURNAL REPRESENTATIVES ON THE DEMISE OF THE ISLAND’S INDEPENDENTLY OWNED ALTERNATIVE NEWSPAPER
From Councilmember Emily Naeole, dated June 12, 2008, requesting the above presentation.

That should prove to be interesting.
-----
Would Naeole have gone through the trouble if it were the Hawaii Free Press that went under?

But "a flicker of hope remains" :

And another note on the Journal. There's a small chance that the reports of its demise may be premature. I understand that at least one buyer is interested and that the newspaper's staff has remained largely intact, though unpaid, pending further developments. Nothing certain, but a flicker of hope remains.
=====
Hunter Bishop doesn't mention Andrew Walden's HFP article that suggests Stephens Media may have acquired some of the Journal's assets. I see that Rob Brezsny's syndicated "Free Will Astrology" column, a Journal staple, has made its debut in the 25 June Big Island Weekly.

======
In that same issue of the Big Island Weekly, there is a letter by Galen Kelly that takes a very different view of the demise of the Journal:

Socialism is not a term to be easily tossed about. And no, I'm not afraid of the word, but more on that in a minute. Kristine, your two opening paragraphs (June 18) lead the reader to believe that what follows is your take on, and response to, the sinking of The Hawaii Island Journal. We get a bit of that and then are lead [sic] down the path of socialism and global warming. Firstly, it's my belief that the Journal was dying a slow death long before the BIW came on the scene; my own perception of it was that it was killing itself with moderation (mostly in its lukewarm coverage of the war), with playing it safe, with avoiding the kind of controversy that shines a light on many of the corruptions we face today. It is the Internet that houses the bravest of journalists and the most uninhibited informing, leaving in the dust those who still honor the status-quo and cower to power. Many papers are suffering under this phenomenon. The Big Island Weekly can escape that and seems to be going further in bringing the truth, even when the truth is ugly. May it continue to grow in being brave and uncompromising. [Emphasis mine.--P.Z.]
==
30 June update: This column by Andrew Walden, "Bloggers Buzz Over Big Island Media Shakeup," appeared in the 17 December 2006 issue of HawaiiReporter.com. It has proven to be prescient. In retrospect, the decline of the Journal might be traced to its acquisition by the Honolulu Weekly, though some would blame pre-Weekly editor Lane Wick for steering the paper back to the arcaneness which plagued the Journal's predecessor, Ka'u Landing, in the late nineties: [Note: I added the names of HunterBishop comment authors, and the dates when they were published.--P.Z.]

Special from Hawaii Free Press
By Andrew Walden, 12/17/2006 2:40:01

With the December 6 introduction of Big Island Weekly, Las Vegas-based Stevens Media, owner of the Hawaii Tribune Herald, West Hawaii Today, North Hawaii News, Westside Weekly, and the Kamaaina Shopper enters the Big Island alternative media space. This move continues the reshaping of a print media scene marked by the termination earlier this year of reporter Hunter Bishop and others at the Hawaii Tribune-Herald, and now by the resignations of reporters Tiffany Edwards and Betsy Tranquilli from West Hawaii Today.

To counter the challenge from Big Island Weekly, the South Kona-based Journal is believed to be considering adopting a weekly format [Hawaii Island Journal never went weekly--P.Z.] and opening an office in (gasp) Hilo, considered by some of its Kona readers to be a “bastion of low-IQ people”.

Commenting on the first issue of Big Island Weekly, Bishop writes on his Blog, [link added by P.Z.] “Editor Kristine Kubat, a Puna geothermal protester in the early '90s, pulled out all the environmental stops in the inaugural issue, including an interview with her old friend Palikapu Dedman….”

More fake environmentalism from those who oppose accepting Madame Pele’s gift to Hawaii--clean geothermal electricity--can only be a sign the Big Island Weekly is aiming at the heart of the HIJ’s political base of anti-environmental “environmentalists”.
...

Say the readers of Bishop’s Puna-focused blog:

“I can't say I've been satisfied with the quality of Hawaii Island Journal since the purchase by the Honolulu Weekly. The size of the paper has dwindled and with it, the amount of quality content. Perhaps it will improve as a weekly but I won't hold my breath. That said, the publisher of BIW (Stephens Media) does not instill a lot of confidence in this reader that the average BIW will be any more worthy of my time than their Kamaaina Shopper already is.” [2nd comment, Rodion, 12 Dec. 2006]

“I kind of stopped reading the HIJ just because those articles were getting super long and cumbersome to read and because the overall subject matter was not that interesting to me.” [10th comment, Josephine Keliipio (was nativeroots), 14 Dec. 2006]


“[Hawaii Island Journal] used to come out with hard-hitting articles that focused attention on important issues. When is the last time they broke a major story? It seems that all they can manage now is a lot of new-age philosophy, which probably pleases some of their advertisers but doesn't do much for me. Oh yes, they will decry injustice and support the environment generically, but investigative reporting is what is needed. An expose' on the good old boy local power structure, or on the inequities in the local government funding structure might get my attention again. I don't even bother to pick it up any more, so somebody will have to tell me if they get it back on track.” [11th comment, Wankine, 14 Dec. 2006]
...

No comments: