|
TheBuzz Erika Engle |
Trade Publishing Co. President Carl "Kini Popo" Hebenstreit sits at his desk, which was accessorized early last month with a torpedo. Torpedoes have long been used in practical jokes between the company's executives.
50 years of publishing,
punctuated by jokesGROWING out of a humble weekly newsletter detailing bidding opportunities for contractors, Trade Publishing Co. is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.
These people know how to celebrate, too. Its executives have a history of playing large-scale practical jokes on one another. Firm President Carl "Kini Popo" Hebenstreit arrived at work one Saturday in early May to find an anniversary-commemorating torpedo wedged in his desk.
The company's legacy of practical jokes dates back to Don Over, originally an ad salesman who took up the reins early in the newsletter's history. The legacy was picked up by successor Carl Lindquist, who wrote a recap of Trade's humorous history for the two-volume anniversary issue of Building Industry magazine, distributed last month but available to be read at tradepublishing.com.
Humble roots
The company's original newsletter is now called Bid Service Weekly, but there is also a Bid Service Daily and Bid Service Daily Plus, which provides immediate updates available for computer download.In the days of the weekly newsletter, under Over's leadership, contractors would head to Trade Publishing's plans room. Trade now partners with the online HawaiiPlanz.com service.
Bid Service Weekly grew to incorporate industry news, but the two concepts were separated and the news side morphed from a monthly newspaper into the slick, four-color monthly known as Building Industry magazine. Other magazines were added, including Hawaii Hospitality and Building Management Hawaii, as well as specialty directories, newsletters and other publications.
Building boom
Building Industry's anniversary coverage also depicts the growing role of the construction industry in Hawaii's economy.In 1954, there were eight hotels on Oahu and Waikiki's first high-rise hotel was being built by Pacific Construction.
The Princess Kaiulani's swimming pool would later be dedicated by Duke Kahanamoku, the magazine reports. Hawaii's visitor industry welcomed fewer than 100,000 tourists each year.
Fewer than 7,000 building permits were issued that year, worth an estimated $49 million.
In 1973 tourism surpassed the military as driver of Hawaii's economy, due in large part, ironically, to the numbers of servicemen coming to Hawaii for R&R from Vietnam.
By the 1980s, construction was a $4 billion industry in Hawaii, according to the magazine.
Recent growth
The company's economy is growing as the construction industry has seen growth."In 1996 we had a down year but since then it's been up, averaging growth of 10 percent (annually)," Hebenstreit said. "This year, I was just doing some numbers from sales reports and it's up nearly 16 percent this year."
Big military housing contracts get some of the credit.
"It's a very buoyant field, including the remodeling side, the upgrades of the hotels, big Waikiki projects and jobs on the neighbor islands building luxury homes, $2 million homes. All this contributes to a developer and a supplier wanting to show themselves," he said.
Hebenstreit sees growth in the company's printing services.
"At one time we did all our own printing. Then we decided we weren't in the printing business. We went outside and then discovered it was getting very costly to print a lot of these publications," Hebenstreit said.
Many publishers prefer an advertising ratio of about 40 percent, with 60 percent editorial content. Trade's publications run about 65 to 70 percent editorial content, he said.
Stepping stone
Executive Editor John Black will leave at month's end to become president of the Hawaii Restaurant Association, after 17 years with the company.Hebenstreit credits Black with "shepherding" the anniversary issue. Hebenstreit may soon add Black to the growing list of those for whom Trade was either a longtime or short-lived stop on the way to career success.
Kalowena Komeiji, vice president for community relations at PBS Hawaii, was a summer journalism intern at Trade. One assignment had her operating heavy equipment. She learned how to move the hulking equipment about and wrote about it for Building Industry magazine. "You couldn't talk me into doing it again today," Komeiji laughed.
"I wrote one of the stories in pidgin, because predominantly, construction guys are local guys who speak pidgin."
Working at Trade was "a kick in the butt (in a good way)," she said.
While she never saw the legendary pranks being perpetrated, "those guys, man, they carry a practical joke out pretty far."
As for the torpedo-adorned desk, there are plans to mount it in Trade's upstairs foyer, Hebenstreit said. "We'll keep an eye on it and it won't do any further damage, collateral or otherwise," he chuckled.
Does that mean it won't be used in any more practical jokes?
"It doesn't mean that; it just means I've got control," he said with an audible grin.
See the Columnists section for some past articles.
Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Bulletin. Call 529-4302, fax 529-4750 or write to Erika Engle, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210, Honolulu, HI 96813. She can also be reached at: eengle@starbulletin.com
