March 1, Wednesday Immediately after the September 16 announcement that Gannett and Liberty Newspapers intended to close the Star-Bulletin, notices of job opening at other papers, as well as other news of potential employment opportunities, sprouted on a room divider next to the City Desk. These job announcements eventually completely covered the 8-10 foot long wall. Now they've all been replaced with a single sheet of paper that has just one word printed in large black block letters: BELIEVE Meanwhile, another reporter responded to my description of the difficulty finding a Star-Bulletin in Kona: "You're right, you can't even get a Bulletin at the Borders there."

On the lighter side: Just to demonstrate the lengths I've been going through to keep this journal up to date, here's a glimpse of the little "cat 'n mouse" game that takes place most times I sit down at this keyboard. But it's a lot better than the previous cable game, which involved a gray cat leaping wildly into the thicket of cables hanging off the back of the computer desk. That was always good for a rise out of me, even at a very early hour.

It has been an unusual start to a beautiful sunny day. First, we found a 6-foot shark on the beach, a first for us. We have seen dead baby sharks washed up a couple of times in the past 4 years, but this is our first sighting of an adult. It was dead by the time we arrived, but may have been alive when it first hit the sand. Then we saw our first "green flash" of the year when the sun finally broke the horizon, just moments before the photo below was taken.

 

March 2, Thursday

Star-Bulletin sales boxes are reappearing on the streets, at least in the downtown Honolulu area. I spotted several walking to court and the State Capitol.

The box at left, just outside of the old courthouse building, had just the Advertiser the last time I was there. And then there was the freshly painted box (right), plopped on the sidewalk down the street from the Circuit Court. I want to just say this is good news and a victory for us, but my cynical side suspects there is a court hearing coming up where Gannett wants to report compliance with the court's prior order.

 

Today is the deadline for Gannett/Liberty if they intend to argue that the lawsuits are moot. This deadline was extended from the original February 18 date. I would expect that they will file, but we shall see.

The week's First Amendment award should go to the Honolulu Weekly's Elizabeth Kieszkowski, who wrote an item in the current issue calling for the state to move ahead with its antitrust lawsuit against Gannett and Liberty Newspapers. She didn't pull her punches despite somewhat awkward personal circumstances. Bravo, Elizabeth!

Meanwhile, Robert Rees, in the preceding Weekly item, cites unnamed sources close to the Attorney General's office to assert that the state might drop its suit, and, if so, "it is all over for the Star-Bulletin." Others, however, believe that the state's withdrawal would be likely to bring U.S. Department of Justice intervention. I would certainly like to believe the latter version.

The following comment appeared on the Society of Professional Journalists computer list SPJ-L in response to a query about the best newspaper chain to work for. Just a little context for the discussions about the possibility of seeking a buyer for the Star-Bulletin and the new worries that process would bring.

"If the Journal Register Co. buys your newspaper expect cutbacks in staff and probably benefits. A newspaper I worked at for many years, The Herald in New Britain Conn., was taken over by this chain in the mid-1990s. Benefits were slashed. Our 401K program was ended. Long-term disability insurance was ended. Our short-term disability benefits were slashed to 50%. (This meant that after you used up your meager allowance of sick days, you went on short-term disability at 50% of your salary. Welfare probably paid more.) Our staff was cut and we added a Sunday newspaper (with two other recently acquire JRC newspapers). Hours increased substantially. The staff left in droves."

March 3, Friday

Attorneys representing Gannett and Liberty Newspapers waited until 2:55 p.m. Hawaiian time yesterday to file their motion which argues the antitrust suits are moot and should be dismissed because the agreement to terminate the joint operating agreement lapsed in December.

The motion asserts that the national trends make the Star-Bulletin's further decline inevitable and, as a result, there will be future moves to end the JOA and shut the Bulletin down. However, they argue these agreements will necessarily be different enough from the one announced last September that it would be pointless to press ahead for a court ruling on the case now before the court. The admission that Gannett will try again if the case is dismissed perhaps states the obvious, but again underscores our long-term anxieties.

According to the report in today's Star-Bulletin:

A motion to dismiss the state lawsuit blocking the shutdown of the Star-Bulletin was no surprise, says University of California at Berkeley law professor Stephen Barnett. "I expect the court to grant the motion," Barnett said, referring to a May 15 hearing before Judge Alan Kay.

"I also expect (the owners) will wait a decent interval before signing a new termination agreement. The key difference this time will be that they will make an effort to sell the Star-Bulletin on a model of what Hearst is doing in San Francisco."

The problem with Barnett's analysis is that arranging a sale isn't in either Gannett or Liberty's interest. The best financial deal for Liberty is to have Gannett buy them out, but the suits have blocked that approach. Their second best option is to just stay put and collect those JOA payments. But that option doesn't save Gannett anything, and it is Gannett's interest in fattening its bottom line that is driving this whole affair.

The Advertiser also carries a story on the motion in this morning's edition.

There is an indication in the court file that a still-secret protective order has been issued or agreed to by all sides. In a brief, single-page memo spelling out the results of the scheduling conference held Feb. 23, one entry states: "Initial disclosure, to the extent the parties are able, due 10 days after this court's filing of a protective order on discovery dispute." There is no direct reference in the file to an application for a protective order or court proceedings regarding such an application.

There was a dispute over discovery relating to a previous motion to dismiss the case. Attorneys for Save Our Star-Bulletin argued that they should be allowed to seek evidence of an illegal conspiracy in order to defend against the motion to dismiss. Gannett then agreed to voluntarily withdraw the motion rather than allow sworn testimony to begin. My guess is that the court has already agreed to allow discovery, but the results will be "protected" from disclosure to the unruly public.

I also had an opportunity to take another look at the relief sought in the original Save Our Star-Bulletin suit:

• a ruling that the agreement to terminate the JOA and close the S-B violated the Sherman Act.
• a permanent injunction preventing Gannett from closing the Star-Bulletin at any time during the remaining term of the JOA unless the paper's assets, including interests in the existing JOA, are sold at public auction to a buyer agreeing to publish for at least two years.
• agreement that Gannett will not interfere in the sale.
• a block on any payments to Rupert Phillips or Liberty for five years, except for payments in the normal course of business or with prior court approval.
• and a permanent injunction prohibiting any agreement to terminate the JOA or close the Star-Bulletin in exchange for a payment by Gannett.

 I had previously missed the demand for a sale a "public auction." That would prevent Rupert from holding out for an unrealistically high price as a way to stave off potential buyers.

But the condition that a buyer keep the paper open for "at least two years" suggests that a settlement might be negotiated based on a commitment by Gannet/Liberty to continue publishing for a set term of several years but significantly less than the full remaining term of the JOA.

Round and round it goes....

March 4, Saturday

Friday in the newsroom was punctuated with floating conversations speculating on the meanings to be imputed to the new Gannett motion to dismiss the case, along with scenario-building and debunking, part of the unending search for potential outcomes. Every trip to the restroom, or the water fountain, seemed to end with someone asking for an opinion on the court action.

My own feeling is that the possible ways of resolving this case are are probably ranked in this order:

1. Most probable: Negotiated global settlement resulting from the settlement discussions started last month. If the terms of the settlement had at least tacit approval from the U.S. Department of Justice, based on informal discussions, then the settlement could provide clarity for Gannett on how to proceed. A settlement could include a sale of the Star-Bulletin to a new owner based on some creative revision of the JOA. It might also include a commitment to continue publishing the Star-Bulletin for a minimum fixed term that would be less than the remaining 12 years of the JOA, but perhaps at least several additional years.
   
   A sale of the S-B with the current JOA intact appears unlikely, as it would not offer Gannett any advantages. I can see the suit forcing Gannett to compromise, but I don't foresee them giving up everything.
   
   A settlement could also include ending the JOA but spinning off the Star-Bulletin as an independent publication, perhaps with an interim period during which HNA would still handle sales and production, but for a fee. There's a core of Bulletin staffers eager for such an opportunity to compete head to head with Gannett's Advertiser. It could happen.
   
   A settlement, even with real concessions to our interests in the form of a commitment to publish for a defined period of years, along with a sweetened severance package, would have the advantage of giving Gannett predictability and a degree of stability necessary for corporate planning. In business terms, this would seem the preferable course.
   
2. Case declared moot, dismissed. On the surface, a "win" like this would appear to be in Gannett's best interest. However, a dismissal would not provide direction or clarity for the future, and Gannett has already indicated that a future attempt to close the Bulletin is certain. If some guidelines aren't established as a result of the current lawsuit, a simple dismissal would likely mean another round of contentious litigation in the future. That would not appear to be in Gannett's corporate interest.
   
3. Least probable: Proceed to trial. Everyone likes to puff themselves up and brag about what they intend to prove at trial, but actually going to trial and risking an adverse ruling, with the prospect of time consuming appeals, is probably not something any of the parties look forward to.

To further complicate matters, Gannett vp and top negotiator, John Jaske, is due here next week for initial contract talks. The contracts of all the unions expire in June.

 

March 5, Sunday

March begins a time of increasingly rapid change. Hawaii's traditional rainy season ends, and the dry season slowly emerges, although this year has been extremely dry already. Whales begin to trickle back to their northern feeding grounds. The plovers are fattening up, getting ready to move on. Changes in the sun's position accelerate. In January, sunrise time varied by only three minutes all month, and ended where it begin. But by the time March ends, sunrise will be 26 minutes earlier than it was on Wednesday.

And in court, the pressure grows for a deal to be struck that will determine whether, or for how long, the Star-Bulletin survives. The pressure is on for attorneys representing all sides to adjust their positions, create options, and open possibilities. None of this is obvious from within the newsroom, although rumors circulate that unnamed Advertiser editors have said things will be changing "in a couple of months." Most of us, however, are left to rely on hints, vague clues, groundless speculation. Possibly even mythology, especially here on a Sunday morning when some good news would be welcome.

The experience earlier this week of finding a dead shark on the beach and, minutes later, seeing a "green flash" when the sun first appeared led me to ask a friend what Hawaiian tradition has to say about the "green flash". She in turn queried her instructors in Hawaiian language and culture. The first person she consulted didn't know, but a second provided the following perspective, as reported by my friend:

"He remembers being told about the ma'oaka -- the green flash at sunrise or sunset. If you see it at sunset, just afterwards you are supposed to be able to see the legendary floating island, the one Lono went over to in his sacred canoe, the island that moves from place to place. But that is sunset. (Not relevant here, but a cool story, no?)

"At sunrise, the ma'oaka is a blessing, a gift, something good. Morning is sacred time, and first light the most powerful. First light is when medicinal herbs are picked, for example, because they are most potent then. Medicines are taken at first light, as you face the rising sun. Many sacred ceremonies are performed at this time. Morning light is the most powerful -- the sun after noon is on the wane, tiring.

"As to the meaning of the whole scenario -- here's his take on it. Sunrise is when the kahuna expect omens to occur. They ready themselves for it, because it is a powerful time of day, and when the sun rises, they see answers to their questions, in the form of omens. "While the shark can be an 'aumakua (a traditional family or personal god) it seems, in this case, the shark represents your enemy, a powerful predator. Kamehameha's mother dreamed of the shark, when she was hapai with the future conqueror of the islands. She craved the eye of shark to eat. Thus, everyone knew the child would be a predator. I mention this, because even though we hear more nowadays about shark as 'aumakua, even in ancient times they knew, first and foremost, he is a predator.

"My teacher believes the green flash killed the shark and placed it on the sand -- now powerless and at your feet -- to show you that great mana is on your side, that your enemy, a predator which has come to devour you, will be vanquished and laid at your feet -- you will stand victorious. This is a sign from heaven. It is as if heaven will put an end to this shark. 'There must be a lot of people putting deep, deep prayers on this matter.'

"This is as he said it."

There you have it. As good a story about signs from heaven as you'll hear anywhere on this Sunday morning.

March 6, Monday

Another date in the newspaper wars. The Seattle Times shifted to morning publication today after more than a century as an afternoon paper. The change was agreed to in a 1999 rewrite of the JOA with the Post-Intelligencer.

The Times has met some resistance and has an advertising campaign aimed at convincing its readers of the benefits of morning publication, along with information on their web site about their "in the morning" advantages.

According to an excellent story in Friday's Wall Street Journal, the JOA provides that if either paper shows losses for three years in a row, it can be shut down but its owner will still be paid 32% of the profits earned by the surviving paper until the year 2083.

That really sounds like a variant of Gannett's agreement to pay Liberty Newspapers to close the doors of the Star-Bulletin while still earning all the JOA called for. The only difference is that Gannett was going to pay up front, and was also too involved in telling Rupert Phillips when to bail out.

The Justice Department is reportedly still reviewing the revised Seattle JOA. It will be interesting to see if they raise any questions.

 

March 7, Tuesday

The San Francisco Bay Guardian reports that Knight-Ridder may be aiming to buy the Examiner, saving the paper from closing. The chain owns the San Jose Mercury News and several smaller Bay Area papers, and the deal would make sense for them, observers say.

For those needing more details about the "green flash" that has been mentioned here several times, I ran across what appears to be the ultimate green flash home page, complete with scientific explanations, bibliography with references to books and magazine or journal articles, photographs, etc.

And from a friend and Star-Bulletin coworker came the following:

I mention this hesitantly.

My grandfather was in great part, Cherokee, strong with the energy of that culture. So much so, that by comparison, I am reluctant to lay claim to the label myself.

He learned the Old Ways.

Made his own medicine from herbs. Had his own view of the cosmos. He carried a gun all of his life, a 45 semiautomatic in the waistband of his trousers. He never left home without it. Didn't believe in banks or other institutions. Did believe in omens. He tried to teach me, but I was very young and he was very old, and I missed a lot of what he said. And he was the kind of man you didn't ask second questions of. But I came away from my experience with him with a definite belief in "signs," as he called them. Sometimes I am accurate in emulating him. It's just a feeling, not something that can be put into words. For what it's worth, I feel confident that the message conveyed to you by the Hawaiian teacher is right on. We'll see what happens. GS p.s. -- here's an old photo of him

The bottom line: Seems there are reasons for the Gannett predators to be wary. A lot of us would like to believe that.

 

March 8, Wednesday

Not much to report. All quiet on the litigation front. Too quiet.

Next week will mark the 6-month anniversary of the announcement by Rupert Phillips that the Star-Bulletin would close. We'll also celebrate another birthday of StarBulletin.com. Six months ago, few thought we would survive this long.

Last year, Detroit newspaper workers and their supporters rallied outside Gannett's annual meeting, while religious leaders spoke to the stockholders and company officials inside the meeting.

This tidbit appeared in an account of the meeting appeared in the Detroit Sunday Journal:

Allan Lengel, a locked-out News reporter who now works for the Washington Post, said Gannett has failed to work with unions at most of its unionized newspapers, pointing out the absence of contracts or company-inspired decertification drives at newspapers in Wilmington, Delaware; Rochester, New York; Battle Creek; Lansing; Cincinnati; Detroit and elsewhere.

"There's a pattern at Gannett papers," Lengel said. "There's a pattern of union cleansing going on with this company.

With our contracts expiring in June, and negotiations getting underway, we should know more about Gannett's anti-labor policies.

 March 9, Thursday

Another one's gone. Alan Matsuoka, who only recently inherited responsibilities on the City Desk for enterprise reporting and investigations, announced his departure yesterday. He'll be going on leave and moving to the Volcano area of the Big Island to immerse himself in a personal writing project. It's probably a good move for Alan, who has fantasized such a move for a while, but its another sign of the slow bleed of talent caused by the precariousness of our situation. We're all going to miss you, buddy.

I happened to run into one of the plaintiffs in the Save Our Star-Bulletin lawsuit yesterday afternoon, and asked if he had any thoughts about the potential for a settlement. He said the attorneys have been tight lipped, and have told the plaintiffs that they can't disclose anything about the settlement conference. So everyone's in the dark, it seems, even some of the individual plaintiffs.

It seems like a century until the next major court date of May 15, which also happens to be my mother's birthday, but that's probably ramming speed in our clogged federal court system. It seems there's not much we can do except hunker down and wait.

It's been a week of disruption for me, as my wife and I prepared to have our house "tented" for termites. With the need to move all 8 cats to the vets for several days, and to pack all food or edible stuff into double wrapped plastic bags, it was a tough week. And then, after we got up extra early Tuesday morning to finish bagging up the stuff in the refrigerator and freezer, the tent crew arrived and quickly announced that there was too much wind and they would have to try again the next day.

I'm sure that in all this there's some metaphor that can be applied to the Star-Bulletin situation, allowing me to make double use of the experience, but it hasn't come to mind yet.

The good thing is that cats seem to have very short memories. They've been home now for 3 hours, and although they're all a bit jumpy, they are getting back to normal. Whew.

 

March 10, Friday

Spirits have been low in the newsroom this week. Alan's announcement added to the gloom. Well, "gloom" is really to strong a word, as this is more a fatigue of spirit.

In the midst of this, fellow worker George Steele pointed me towards the web site of Ka Leo, the University of Hawaii at Manoa's student newspaper, where he found a series of editorials and stories supporting the Star-Bulletin.

One favorite begins: "We believe that everything short of violence should be used to keep the Star-Bulletin open until it can be sold."

Great reading for a "down" week.

 

March 11, Saturday

 Gannett appears to be doing its best to measure up to the company's hard-earned reputation. We were greeted yesterday morning with a memo from Mike Fisch spelling out the company's posture in the contract negotiations now underway.

"Our representatives made it clear that while there are serious issues to be addressed because of the economic situation, we hope to be able to conclude the negotiations without significant staff reductions or major changes in the standard of living our employees have enjoyed during the good economic times." [emphasis added]

This is really a museum quality, world-class, iron fist in the velvet glove corporate communication. If there's a school of psychological warfare out there, then the folks who wrote that little mind-twister must have been top-of-their-class graduates.

First, the setup: "...while there are serious issues to be addressed...." The bad news is flashed, but the "while" sets the reader up to expect that the bad news is being transcended, or put aside.

Then the positive spin: "...we hope to be able to conclude the negotiations without...." Nice and upbeat. Sucks the reader in. What a constructive attitude on the part of our Gannett negotiators.

Snap! The mind-trap crashes closed. "...without SIGNIFICANT staff reductions or MAJOR changes in the standard of living..." After being lulled by the corporate nice-guy language, the bottom line is suddenly that their version of the good news is only small layoffs and minor reductions in our standard of living. But the writing is so upbeat that its hard at first to realize how you've been tricked.

Fisch apparently didn't check the headline story in his own paper Friday morning, which proclaimed rising state tax revenues and a rebounding economy, which Gannett must be well aware of.

There isn't any consensus on what Gannett's game plan really is. Some in our newsroom believe this is just the typical posturing as bargaining commences, while others, including some over at the Advertiser, think Gannett is really going to make a serious attack on the Guild and the contract.

No worries, we'll find out soon enough.

 

March 12, Sunday

I ran across another article which describes the anti-labor strategy pushed by the law firm of King & Ballow, the same pack of suits that Gannett and Liberty Newspapers have brought into our case. It examines a strike several years ago in San Francisco, as well as K&B's contributions in other situations. An interesting read from the Media Alliance.

In news on the home front, the State Senate has introduced their version of a concurrent resolution in support of the Star-Bulletin. Identified as S.C.R. 51, the resolution begins life with the signatures of 21 of the Senate's 25 members. A House version has apparently not been introduced yet. The reso, like those circulated earlier through Honolulu's Neighborhood Boards, calls for Liberty Newspapers to keep publishing while seeking a buyer for the Star-Bulletin in order to retain an important second editorial voice in the community.

 

March 13, Monday

The big business news today is the apparent deal to sell the Los Angeles Times, along with other holdings of Times Mirror Co., to Tribune Co., publishers of the Chicago Tribune. The sale price is reportedly over $6 billion, but its still unsettling to see another landmark newspaper empire changing hands. There's an underlying feel that another group of shareholders are bailing out of the newspaper business, and big moves like this threaten to draw us all along as the tides shift.

Meanwhile, more signs appear to remind us that time is passing while our uncomfortable situation remains unresolved. Spring announced its early arrival here in Kaaawa this weekend with the reappearance of beach glass. Not your normal indicator of the seasons, I suppose, but it does work. During the winter, the sand shifts and covers the layer where ocean-tumbled beach glass is most often found. The change is seasons also brings more shifting of sands, typically exposing that glass carrying layer once again, and keeping it in sight through the summer. This weekend, the glass was back.

Today, and the work week, started with a long and vibrant "green flash", this one a clear blue-green with a relatively long duration. A good sign for the week.

 

March 14, Tuesday

There was a brief buzz after a negotiations bulletin was posted on the Guild's board next to the water fountain. There's a whiff of divide & conquer in the list of specific changes the company is seeking,which fall heavily on folks in the printing plant , circulation, sales, and other areas outside the newsroom. Although reporters would be hit by general wage/benefit proposals, the burden of the company's other proposals would miss us. If they hope to split the Guild and other unions, it won't work, especially after solidarity shown after the closure announcement.

The Chicago Tribune-L.A. Times merger continues to draw comments. Jack Downs, who anchors About.com's guide to newspapers, writes: "Big business is bad for newspapers." Worth a read. Also check out what Jack had to say about our situation and Gannett's push to close the Star-Bulletin.

A hearing on whether the state will have to produce a $21 million bond is scheduled just two weeks from today, but there have been signals that it could be delayed.

 

March 15, Wednesday

A longtime Advertiser writer speculated yesterday that Gannett will let the union contracts expire and leave us working without a contract in mid-June.

It would certainly put us in a weakened position at that point, without significant leverage. Star-Bulletin staffers could ill afford to walk out or threaten to walk out, since that's probably precisely what Gannett wants and would immediately use the opportunity to lock out any stragglers and close the paper down. And without that threat, how would we counter any liberties taken by Gannett during a no-contract period? This is not a pretty picture if they turn to union-busting hardball.

Perhaps this is why it's not healthy to spend a lot of time speculating.

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