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Star-Bulletin deal The sale of minority stakes in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin and MidWeek to local investors represents a rare exception to nearly four decades of Hawaii newspaper acquisitions by mainland chains, according to media experts and advertising executives.
counters trend
It becomes the only Hawaii
daily paper to have local ownershipBy Rick Daysog
rdaysog@starbulletin.comYesterday, the newspapers' owner, David Black, announced that he has agreed to sell a noncontrolling interest in the two newspapers to local real estate investor Duane Kurisu, attorney Jeffrey Watanabe and wife Lynn, local banker Warren Luke and his family, and Island Holdings Inc., represented by attorney Colbert Matsumoto and entrepreneur Franklin Tokioka.
The move marks the first time since 1971 that members of the local community will be involved in running the Star-Bulletin.
"This sends a message out there that the Star-Bulletin is setting down roots in the community," said Nick Ng Pack, chief executive officer of Milici Valenti Ng Pack, one of the state's largest ad agencies. "This is a good thing for the Star-Bulletin."
The investment reverses nearly 40 years of Hawaii newspaper acquisitions by mainland corporations, according to Helen Chapin, author of the 1996 book "Shaping History: The Role of Newspapers in Hawaii."
Chapin cited a string of local newspaper takeovers by outside companies that began with Scripps League Newspapers Inc.'s 1963 purchase of Pali Press. In 1971, Virginia-based Gannett Co. bought the Star-Bulletin, then in 1993 sold it to Liberty Newspapers LP of Florida and bought the Honolulu Advertiser for $250 million. Black, a Canadian publisher, purchased the Star-Bulletin and MidWeek in separate deals last year.
With the exception of the Star-Bulletin, none of Hawaii's daily newspapers have local ownership.
"The trend has been moving away from newspapers that are branded as locally owned," said Gerald Kato, a University of Hawaii journalism professor and former Advertiser reporter. "But here we have a group of people from Hawaii who put down some money and have faith that the newspaper will have a future in this state."
Bob Haiman, former president of the Poynter Institute, a journalism education center based in St. Petersburg, Fla., said local ownership generally means that a newspaper will be more sensitive to the community's needs and priorities.
A mainland corporation makes many of its important decisions from thousands of miles away, whereas a newspaper with local ownership has a closer attachment to its own school systems, its governmental organizations and other local institutions, said Haiman, a former executive editor of the St. Petersburg Times.
That attachment, he said, is often reflected in the newspaper's coverage.
"I have long believed that newspapers in communities are well served when the people who own them and operate them live in the community, breathe the air in the community, drink the water in the community and send their kids to schools in the community," said Haiman.
"When the people who own or run the game live hundreds or thousand of miles away, they simply cannot put the interests of the local newspaper and the local community first."
But local ownership also has its pitfalls, said the UH's Kato.
With a high-powered group like the Star-Bulletin and MidWeek's investors, there is the risk that a newspaper's coverage can become parochial and that reporters may not be willing to take on "sacred cows," he said.
"It's kind of unclear to me what kind of effect the shareholders will have in the overall direction of the company and the content of the newspaper," Kato said. "Will the shareholders keep an arm's length from the content?"
Black stressed that there will be no impact on the Star-Bulletin's and MidWeek's editorial content.
He said the benefit of having "long-term, patient" investors who are strong community leaders gives the Star-Bulletin new credibility in the local business world.
Black alleged that the Advertiser salespeople have fueled speculation that the Star-Bulletin would not survive to entice business to their newspaper. Yesterday's announcement should end much of that speculation, he said.
Advertiser officials have denied the allegation.
"Together we tried to rescue a grand old lady," Black told employees yesterday.
"(We) were able to plan a breakwater, and you people were able to build it piece by piece so we can put her into some quieter waters. These investors will be able to turn that breakwater into a Rock of Gibraltar. She'll be safe now behind that breakwater. It's time for her to stop focusing on survival. It's time for her to start showing off."