Final Days? A Newsroom Diary
by Ian Lind, Star-Bulletin reporter
Final Days? A Newsroom Diaryby Ian Lind, Star-Bulletin reporter
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All ashore that's going ashore! Bids--or proposals--are due at noon, Hawaii time, and those who choose not to play are probably out of the game. Whether any information, such as the number of bidders, will be disclosed isn't known, although strict secrecy would really be a mistake if the long-term goal is survival of the Star-Bulletin. Anything that contributes to prolonging the uncertainty will potentially contribute to further attrition.When the deadline arrives, we'll be gathered in the newsroom for a special lunch to say aloha to Peter Wagner and Lori Tighe, who leave the paper today. Lori is heading to Baltimore, while Peter is moving over to Honolulu Publishing. We'll miss them both.
Thursday's mood in the newsroom was still "up", but there was more questioning of the white knight named Black from the great white north. Are any of his other papers unionized? How much downsizing will his plan require? What kind of a person is he to work for? These are all unknowns to most of us, although the ESOP committee might have further info that hasn't been shared with the rest of the staff.
David Black's emergence as a probable bidder was noted over at Jim Romenesko's MediaNews, available at Poynter.org.
"Remember Little Rock" was the theme of other hallway discussions. It's the city where the "local" newspaper won the war against Gannett and eventually forced Gannett out of the market. Now, with at least some apparently realistic hope of survival, there was talk in our newsroom of the potential to leverage our strengths into a victory against Gannett here as well. In some ways it's quite a long shot, but it's got people talking.
It was the definition of anticlimax.The deadline for bids arrived without fanfare, and passed just as simply. No sirens or whistles, no clapping, no halt to the day's activities to note the passing of this landmark event.
But as Richard Farina wrote decades ago, "been down so long it looks like up to me."
Two personal reactions to Canadian publisher David Black were received yesterday. The first was posted on the newsroom bulletin board by a staffer who talked to an acquaintance whose wife works at one of Black's newspapers in B.C.
"The man had nothing but nice things to say about Black. He used the words 'fair,' 'pro-people,' 'friendly,' and 'good guy' over and over."
The contact said his wife "loves working for the company," and described it as "a fun place to work."
A more sobering view was waiting when I got home last night, this from an acquaintance of mine who says he knows Black personally.
On one hand he's a nice person to spend time with socially, but on the other, he's a ruthless, reactionary business man. I believe he's probably straight forward and not deceitful, but he's clearly a bottom line thinker, in my opinion and that of many others. An interesting weekly paper called Monday Magazine that he bought last year has undergone some changes that I believe have cost it circulation and readership. It was the resident arts oriented, socially and politically critical paper with some soul. He could have left it that way, it was quite popular the way it was and the only publication of it's type in Victoria. NOT ANY MORE. It's lost it's soul, (and most of the better writers) and become far more commercial and far less controversial in it's editorial approach. And I know for a fact it's lost it's popularity. Whether he made these changes for personal reasons I don't know. But we don't bother picking it up anymore. David has been picking up small regional papers in B.C. for years and making a fortune doing it. He runs the same classifieds ( for example) in all of them. And they're filled with advertising and mediocre, really meaningless columns.Obviously, we're not out of the woods yet.
As I understand the process, the bids will now go to Judge Kurren for an initial review. Then, presumably, Liberty and Gannett will have to select a front runner to begin negotiations with on details and, hopefully, get a final deal in place soon. The sooner the better.
It was one of those relatively rare and quite extraordinary sunrises, and I almost missed it. I was calmly getting the coffee maker loaded and timer set when Meda looked outside and saw the beginnings of the scene. We dropped everything and raced for our shoes, then down the shortest route to the beach, making it just in time to capture some pictures before the colors faded away. |
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We said good-bye to reporters Lori Tighe and Peter Wagner on Friday. Peter's departure is especially real for me, as we've shared a cubicle for a couple of years and I've really appreciated his presence. Hopefully he's going to be having fun in his new career as a magazine editor. But, as was said again and again on Friday, "you can always come back."
But on Friday, it was food & festivities, and a few tears (I won't say who cried).
For a few more photos, click on the picture of longtime staffer Cynthia Oi and her lunch.
It was another special sunrise today. We hustled out of the house early again as the deep reds and oranges began taking over the ridges of high clouds. We even cut the first part of our walk short in order to get down to the beach and a clear view in time to get some pictures, but as we raced through the last block the colors quickly faded to gray, leaving only a hint of what had been so strong and vibrant just seconds before. So this one leaves no permanent record, digital or otherwise. It's a good reminder about time and its passing.It also means I won't waste further hours fiddling with more sunrise photos. Meda says yesterday was enough for a while.
I'm hoping that additional information will be available after the bids or proposals received for the Star-Bulletin are turned over to the judge, which I understand should happen tomorrow. More news would help stave off the nagging edges of anxiety that appeared again as soon as the Canadian excitement began to fade.
Yesterday ended much like it had begun. Something wonderful but all too transient, here one moment and then, gone. No way to hold or capture it except in memory. First, the colors of sunrise. Then, later, Buster, the senior male among our cats, a creampoint Siamese who moved in with us in 1991 and quickly established himself as a favorite.
I have to say that in the last year, we've all been bounced around by the Gannett battle,but I have never cried for the Star-Bulletin. I did for Buster.
KITV reporter Daryl Huff and a cameraman were out in the parking lot at noon yesterday, and Daryl had fun telling a group of passing S-B staffers about his interview with Canadian publisher David Black. The interview aired last night, and I have to admit only catching part of it. It will make it to the station's news archive in the next day or two, where the text will be available for the rest of this month.Black spoke of his business plan, which includes adding a Sunday edition ASAP, and cutting costs down to be competitive. He said many details remain to be negotiated, if he is the winning bidder, including how long the Star-Bulletin can continue to operate at its present location, the terms for interim arrangements for Gannett to continue to print the paper, and so on.
Huff said he also spoke positively about participation by the employee ESOP, because an ESOP ownership interest would be a way to avoid the newspaper being seen as foreign owned and controlled.
In a story posted overnight on the Star-Bulletin's online breaking news page, reporter Rick Daysog writes:
But he said he's prepared to spend tens of millions of dollars to compete with the 104,000-circulation Honolulu Advertiser."The objective is to save the Star-Bulletin," Black said. "You can't do that with one hand tied behind your back."
There's both anxiety and excitement in the newsroom as bits of information get thrown on the table. It's too early to be giddy, but we would all like to be.
But as one staffer said yesterday, shrugging his shoulders: "It's like a car wreck. You're in it, and once the car starts skidding, you're just along for the ride."
The big news yesterday turned out to be another Daysog scoop identifying another bidder, California-based Hadland Communications Inc.According to Daysog's story:
Hadland Communications, through its Coastal Community Newspapers division, owns five weekly newspapers in the Los Angeles area with a combined circulation of more than 70,000. The publications include 16,000-reader Culver City News, the 25,000-circulation Santa Monica Bay News, the 15,000-circulation Los Angeles Tribune, and the Westchester and Playa del Rey News with a combined weekly readership of about 16,000.There were also reactions to David Black's KITV interview, including worry about his references to necessary sacrifices by Star-Bulletin employees. Everyone understands there will be changes if we are purchased and go independent, but there's a general anxiety about how deep or fundamental those changes will be.
Black's in Honolulu this week with an entourage, doing who knows what, and hopefully the ESOP committee is on his agenda.
There was also a press release by Kauai newsletter publisher Peter McClaran, who announced he had submitted a bid along with Cec Heftel and Kauai developer Jeff Lindner, who was described as the primary financial backer. It isn't clear whether Heftel has also jumped on board as an investor in addition to lending his experience to the group. Heftel has been leading the public charge towards a sale for much of the last year, with more happening behind the scenes. We'll have to wait and see what happens next, and hope for the best as these competing proposals shake out.
McClaran's one-page release also disclosed that federal magistrate Barry Kurren will hold a telephone conference with bidders early next week.
A reader of this Newsroom Diary responded yesterday, "Shucks guys -- you're too gloomy". It's a great message, and I'm just including the whole thing.
>>But as one staffer said yesterday, shrugging his shoulders: "It's like a car wreck. You're in it, and once the car starts skidding, you're just along for the ride."<<Well, sometimes you can control your destiny......the ESOP.....remember, you guys own a piece of the rock concept thingie....???.....
Also, it's kinda like driving along in your 4 wheel drive in Montana on an icy road, in the middle of winter, the wind is howling crosswize to the road, the snow is blowing and it's cold, and you start skidding and sliding off the road..........well, if you are going to survive and not tip over, you utter an <#$(*&^%!!>, you crank the wheel over & actively drive off the road, bounce hard at the bottom of the barrow pit as you go into the snowy wheat field, drop your 4x4 into low gear as you are bouncing along, and come grinding back out with the snow and mud flying all over the place, and re-point your self down the road. By then you are possibly wide awake and narrowly focused.
Been there-done-that, in a prior life, I did just the previous mentioned event driving home late one nite after an all day and evening stint at a local TV station running the photo/lab operation. I felt the right front wheel dropping off the soft shoulder of the road and at that point your instincts kick in even though you are half asleep. Everything is a blur, but you keep plodding forward. Yes, the sun will rise again tomorrow morning.
Actually with the prior mentioned event 30 years ago, I was probably really too tired to fully wake up again, just drove home, went to bed.....an everyday event.....drive off the road, drive back onto the road and keep going........like your daily trek up & down the winding road to Kaaawa.
No, I wasn't kidnapped by Canadians this morning. It was about 5:20 a.m. and I had just about finished the day's entry when my computer froze, not to be restored before having to head off for work a couple of hours later. It appears to be one of those pesky and hard to find software conflicts. So I know how my weekend will be spent.Things were quiet Thursday until midmorning, when S-B publisher John Flanagan came down the hall leading a group of about eight people on a tour. We're used to HNA-led tours of the news operation, which are offered to schools and community organizations, but this one was different. The group turned out to be eight execs from Black Press Ltd., the Canadian publisher that appears to be the leading publicly known contender to purchase the Star-Bulletin. The group toured our newsroom and continued through all parts of the building except from for the Advertiser newsroom.
Word is that Black is scheduled to meet today with the governor and mayor, and that he's been contacting major advertisers seeking commitments if/when the sale goes through.
The walkthrough elicited this quip from a S-B staffer: "With that group from Black's publishing company coming thru the newsroom, now I know what it feels like to be a puppy at the Humane Society."
This is obviously a serious bidder who sees the potential to claim a profitable share of the newspaper market in head-to-head competition with the Advertiser, and a guy who professes to know how to scrap. There are probably some long faces upstairs in the Gannett/Hawaii Newspaper Agency offices.
There are also rumors skittering around that some Advertiser staffers have sent feelers about applying for possible job openings with the Star-Bulletin. Now there's a dramatic reversal, and no deal is even close to being finalized. If true, it's a clear indication of how deeply the past year's drama has cut into morale on both sides of the building.
Spirits were boosted today by the appearance of a mysterious poster in several locations that provided another gauge of newsroom sentiments.
I'm embarrassed. Late postings two mornings in a row, and today I can't plead computer problems because I'm on our alternate system, a cute little first generation iBook. Somehow we were both awake early and decided to head out walking right away, leaving this missive and even the Peet's coffee to wait for our return.I have to admit being surprised when people stop by my desk, or send e-mail inquiries, when the daily entry isn't made on time. And I'm told that among those who make daily checks are folks involved in the various groups bidding on the paper, and others in the industry tracking the situation out here. I'm a bit unsure how to feel about this. A bit exposed, perhaps, but hey, screw 'em if they can't take a joke, right?
For another interesting bit of news about Black Press Ltd., check out this description of their recently announced "strategic alliance" with Technovision Systems Inc., British Columbia's largest Internet service provider. Scroll down to about the third item and you'll spot the deal with Black, which is described as a mini-version of the Time Warner-AOL merger, and indicates Black is a front-line player in the electronic enterprise. There are lots of interesting twists in this alliance, with hints about possibilities for StarBulletin.com's future.
On the Gannett front: The company acquired its 100th daily newspaper this week with the purchase of the Opelousas Daily World, its fifth paper in Louisiana, according to reports yesterday.
But it seems we've gotten to be quite an irreverent bunch. Late Thursday afternoon, a power surge knocked out most of the Star-Bulletin computers. After the initial screams and curses from those who hadn't saved their work faded, somebody yelled that Gannett had probably just fried the exec who got us into this whole mess. Zzzzsssst!
In fact, if the Star-Bulletin is sold and survives, it will hopefully encourage more aggressive investigations of self-serving financial claims such as those Gannett has made here in Honolulu. They said, and continue to maintain publicly, that the Star-Bulletin is a financial failure that cannot be redeemed, and, we suspect, have done everything possible to make this a self-fulfilling prophesy. Now if an aggressive newspaper operator smells a profit and comes in to disrupt the Gannett monopoly, it will expose the lies and deceptions used to sustain Gannett's version of our financial condition.
It's possible to start getting perverse and just hoping for the court cast to go forward so that the process of deconstructing the whole structure of lies could play out in a court of law. But we'll probably all be just as happy to play it out in a straight newspaper battle.
And on the JOA front, the Justice Department 's antitrust division has recommended approval of the new JOA in Denver. The Denver Post reports that the newspapers have no objection to making the DOJ report public and will be petitioning to open it to public review.
Now I'm off for an adventure in computer diagnostics. Hopefully I'll quickly identify the glitch and get everything back up and running soon.
I can hear a Rod Serling-like voice. "Good evening, and welcome to The Broken Zone." It appeared that we were exiting this dimension where everything is at risk, where any electronic or mechanical object might be sitting there planning how to self-destruct at the most inopportune moment. After the camera, two major appliances, and several smaller annoyances, things here in Kaaawa seemed to have stabilized. But the computer problem is not solved, or, more properly, has changed and made that turn into The Broken Zone. It's already devoured Saturday, and I've sworn not to obsess about it today, so I'll omit the details.So I begin the day forcing myself to wake up from this dream. I'm in a car, not my own, perhaps rented or borrowed. I'm heading to an appointment, although in the dream it's not exactly clear where. I'm heading down quiet residential road looking for a place to turn around. I'm about at the end of this area of homes, and ahead the road turns to dirt ruts. Luckily there's a corner where I can turn, reverse, and get headed back in the right direction. OK, I'm reversing back onto the street, but nothing happens when I step on the brake, and the car is rolling backwards, picking up speed, and in the rear view mirror I can see the torn up dirt road getting closer and closer. Gravity and friction don't seem to operate in this zone, and the car is maintaining a steady pace in reverse while I try putting it in gear, but nothing happens. So I decided it was time to awake.
The dream could reflect the sense of being sucked progressively into yesterday's computer meltdown. On the other hand, it pretty accurately sums up the out of control feelings of the last year, rolling inexorably towards an unknown destination while attempts to brake, or shift gears, or leave a diary as a record of the experience, remain simply symbolic.
It's possible that things are going to turn around, though. We saw our first "green flash" of this season as the sun rose this morning, hopefully a good omen. If you're unfamiliar with these wonders of physics, search for prior entries using the Atomz.com search at the end of this page.
Meanwhile, David Black, through his agent, the Honolulu law firm of Torkildson, Katz etc., has registered a new business, Oahu Publications, Inc. with the state's business registration office. Registration date August 28, 2000.
This could be the week. Bidders are expected to take part in a telephone conference tomorrow with Magistrate Judge Kurren on Tuesday, and Friday remains the deadline for selection of the top bidder, who would then begin negotiations with Gannett & Liberty over transition logistics and other details. It is possible, then, that by the end of the week we will know where we're headed. Of course, everything is subject to more delays, which get more painful with each additional round.It appears that Black Press is doing more than contacting the town's largest advertisers. In a letter addressed simply to "Dear Advertiser," companies are being told that the new and independent Star-Bulletin will be a 7-day paper, and are being asked to pledge 50 percent of their newspaper advertising budgets over a multiyear period in exchange for discounts. The letter includes a pledge form to be signed and returned. No word yet on the results of the outreach effort, but it is clearly a direct challenge to Gannett's monopoly. Gannett rumored to be doing a bit of its own wining and dining of large accounts in an attempt to keep them in the fold.
The problem is that Gannett showed its true colors last year when the closure of the Star-Bulletin appeared to be a done deal. At that point, Gannett adopted a "take it or leave it" attitude towards advertisers that created major resentment, and this is a town where people have long memories. Hopefully all of that now works in our favor.
The August 18 issue of The Guild Reporter arrived in my mail over the weekend. On the front page, a small story about the Star-Bulletin's status, and on the back page a brief description of this diary in a listing of interesting things to be found on the web:Reporter Ian Lind's journal of Gannett's efforts to shut down the Honolulu Star-Bulletin is now in its tenth month and makes fascinating reading. Plus you get to meet Buster and the rest of the menagerie and see some boffo sunsets and sunrises.It arrived just a week too late for Buster, but he would have been proud of the attention. Well, more properly, he would have relished the attention we would have lavished on him for this break into the "national press".
We're hoping for some additional news following the conference with the judge today. No one holds out much hope for any surprise bidders popping up, so there may not be much for the judge or the parties to sort out. At least we should know whether Friday's deadline for selecting the top bid will hold or be extended further.
I heard some rumblings that snippets printed here the past few days, including the incorporation of Oahu Publications and the letters to advertisers, were known to folks involved in the Star-Bulletin ESOP process but considered "secret". Well, once things hit the public record they are fair game.
I have to say that the ESOP committee has pretty much placed me "off limits" during this process, which has probably been a wise policy, but it's weird to be shunned in your own workplace, first by those who just felt uncomfortable being actors in our own story, and then by the ESOP group trying to protect confidences and enhance the chances of a deal materializing.
My Monday was blown up when I dropped by my parents' home after lunch and found my 86-year old dad in bed, unable to move, after taking a header off his antique bicycle earlier in the day. My mom was unable to convince him that a visit to emergency was necessary, and so when I arrived it was a tense standoff. It took me a while to reach his doctor and then get consensus on the appropriate action, but then it was a call to 911, then following the ambulance to the hospital where we were all trapped for over five hours while a battery of tests determined he hadn't actually broken anything vital. By the time we drove him back home, got him into the house, and then drove home to Kaaawa it was well nearly 11 p.m. What a day. But it could easily have been a lot worse.
"Hell, this is like standing on the scaffold with the noose around your neck for two more weeks."That was the reaction of one Star-Bulletin staffer after yesterday's announcement that Judge Kurren had granted yet another two week extension. Just when it seems that everything is ripe for decision, somebody jerks the rug again and we're sent emotionally sprawling again.
There were also strong reactions among S-B staffers to the Advertiser's initial report, also sent out as an email advisory, which declared that the delay resulted from the rejection of all bids.
All three bids for the Honolulu Star-Bulletin newspaper were rejected in federal court today because each of the bidders sought a subsidy or an extension of the Bulletin's joint operating agreement with The Honolulu Advertiser, bidder Peter McClaran of Kauai said he was advised by the broker in the case.It turned out later that McClaran's account was wrong, but the 'Tiser's coverage still emphasizes the negative view of the S-B as a necessarily failing newspaper. Reporter Walter Wright's story in today's edition, for example, reaches out unnecessarily for an academic's gloomy analysis, placed high in the story:
"It's not a money-making proposition," said analyst John Morton, who writes a column about media companies for American Journalism Review. "A stand-alone, second newspaper in a market like Honolulu's has been proven in market after market as something that just isn't going to work."This is the context of a bidding process that now has two newspaper companies ready to put their money on the line because they see a potentially profitable future for the Star-Bulletin, and with the risks involved, their assessment must be that the level of potential profit is commensurate with the risks. In that context, Morton's general comments about other markets "like Honolulu's" seems out of place and a reflection of Gannett's relentless propaganda effort to convince the public and, by implication, the court of the inevitability of their desired monopoly. At least that's the view shared by lots of S-B staffers.
Contrast Rick Daysog's report on the same decision, available early today in the S-B's "Breaking News" section, and to be shifted later into Wednesday's regular online edition at StarBulletin.com. Rick reports the extension provides bidders time "to work out the details of their offers" and "clarify ambiguities and correct deficiencies in their bids".
Another newsroom comment: "I just don't like the fact that so much of our fate rests in the hands of Gannett. We ain't sold 'til the fat boy disappears,"
Reactions to Walter Wright's story continued to reverberate in the Star-Bulletin newsroom yesterday, as staffers endlessly pondered the gratuitous "just isn't going to work" quote. Was it Walter, or management? Was it an intentional bit of disinformation? The rumors started later in the day with "word" that staff messages in the Advertiser's newsroom had trumpeted the increased odds of our demise during those moments when it appeared the bids had been "rejected".We seem to waver between attempts to be generous and "understanding" of feelings across the hall, and cycles of suspicion and resentment. Luckily, some cross-newsroom friendships survive, keeping us from wholly cutting off communications and contacts.
There were also continued questions about the extension of the deadline. Is it good or bad? Anything to worry about? The questions were persistent enough to prompt the ESOP committee to issue a statement aimed a calming the floating anxiety. Staffers were directed to a brief typed page with their positive spin on the meaning of the extension and its implications for the bidding process. The message in brief, as described in a staff message: Calm down, it's all going ok.
Happy Anniversary!It will be pizza for all at the City Desk at noon in honor of the 1-year anniversary of the news of our intended demise. It was one year ago today that our local management got the news on a confidential basis, and word leaked out that an announcement would be made early the next morning on our news cycle. Always thoughtful with the little details, aren't they?
But here we are, a year later, not only publishing but on the verge of a sale and an independent future as a direct competitor to Gannett's Advertiser. A slam dunk turns into an overtime cliffhanger with the momentum now going in our favor, it seems.
Now you can stop by and take a look at one corner of the newsroom at the new S-B cam. The picture updates every few minutes. Nothing fancy, just a slice of our day.
Folks are still reacting to John Morton's statement, quoted high in an Advertiser story on Wednesday. "A stand-alone, second newspaper in a market like Honolulu's has been proven in market after market as something that just isn't going to work," Morton is quoted as saying.
And the S-B reply: "So I guess the Advertiser doesn't have much of a future after we go independent."
Just how long has this year been? We've seen a number of friends leave for other jobs, although the number is well within the range of normal attrition. Here in Kaaawa, we've been through a full annual cycle of the sun and tides. One sick cat who the vets said was dying of a liver infection has survived and is stable. Buster, who seemed big, sassy, and healthy, was felled by a cancerous tumor. Silverman, the wild cat that had moved in while we were on vacation and was sitting on our deck when we returned on Sept 14, used to run if we got too close, but has now learned the joys of human interactions and has discovered the joys of petting and sleeping in the house and getting table scraps from fingers. I'm on my third digital camera (although whether these count as toys or tools is an ongoing discussion in the Chesney-Lind household). The pictures of the initial closing announcement were with a Ricoh RDC-2, which was replaced with a Canon A50, which in turn broke down and was replaced by a new Nikon 800. Our best friends and former neighbors (and Buster's former family) have moved to Kaneohe, leaving the immediate neighborhood here a bit emptier. We've all added another birthday. This diary has evolved from sporadic to daily. And we're not dead yet!
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