Monday, June 18, 2001
When the Star-Bulletin moved into its Waterfront Plaza offices in March, Honolulu became only the 14th city in the nation with two or more daily newspapers that are not jointly owned or partners in a joint operating agreement. My kind of
two-newspaper townThe American Journalism Review says the others are in Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., plus the smaller cities of Aspen, Colo., Berlin, N.H., Columbia, Mo., Kingsport, Tenn., Manassas, Va., Pleasanton, Calif., and Trenton, N.J. Fifteen other cities have newspapers with joint operating agreements or that are jointly owned.
Noting the recent addition of Honolulu and San Francisco to the cities with competitive dailies, media analyst John Morton commented in his column on the newspaper business: "The list of competitive newspaper cities remains small (there were 502 cities with competing dailies in the early 1920s). But it warms the hearts of old newsmen like me to see the list grow, even if only a little."
The heart grows even warmer with proximity.
--Lee Catterall