TheBuzz Erika Engle

Hana Hou hoping for more rounds

It won in the Travel and In-Transit Consumer category for its August/September 2007 issue, with a cover story focused on Hawaiian family values.

"Hana Hou!" is published by Honolulu-based Pacific Travelogue Inc. under contract for Hawaiian. The award is its first under Editor Michael Shapiro, who came on board last year.

The magazine has had a good year with numerous local awards, Shapiro said.

The WPA competition included nearly 2,000 entries from more than 500 print and online publications published west of the Rockies.

Other Hawaii-based publications entered this year included Aloha Airlines' "Spirit of Aloha" and three from PacificBasin Communications LLC: "Ala Moana," "Ward Centers" and "Hawaii Home + Remodeling," said WPA Executive Director Jane Silbering.

That "Hana Hou!" beat "Spirit of Aloha" was "kind of bittersweet," Shapiro said.

In accepting the award in Los Angeles, he told the audience Aloha had gone bankrupt, that "Spirit of Aloha" would be leaving and that "the Hawaii media environment would be poorer for its absence."

"We thanked them for many years of a fine magazine," Shapiro said.

The words were especially meaningful to Honolulu Publishing Co. Ltd. executives at the gala, who had collected numerous awards for "Spirit of Aloha" over the years. "That was very gracious of him," said Nich Tinebra, chief executive officer.

Honolulu Publishing owns the title and could continue to publish the magazine, "but we don't have a place to put it," he said. Its future is undecided.

Pacific Travelogue didn't expect to win. "The competition is pretty stiff - we were surprised, so that kind of made us think, 'Well, maybe we should aim a little higher,'" Shapiro said.

Higher would be taking a stab at the American Society of Magazine Editors National Magazine Awards. This year's winners were announced May 1 in New York City, a day before the Maggies. Publications such as National Geographic, Vanity Fair and Rolling Stone left that gala with 25 wins in 20 categories.

Maybe a long shot for a local magazine, but "you certainly never know. We might have one little article of local interest that just kind of strikes a chord," said Shapiro.

The pages of "Hana Hou!" often feature the work of renowned photographers. A lot of them live here, while others are recruited and "get a free trip to Hawaii (and) get to hang out - it's enjoyable for them," he said.

Its first-ever fashion issue next month will include photography by Neil Kirk and Vivian Palmer.