News Morphosis: Not your everyday newspapers anymore
Has your hometown lost a newspaper recently? It was here a moment ago. It was always there. Maybe as a kid you got up early in the morning, like I did, to deliver it to your neighbors. Newspapers have been a part of the rhythm of life in America since Thomas Jefferson said that, having to choose between government with no newspapers or newspapers without government, he’d have to choose the latter.
Now don’t worry. This isn’t going to be another boring lamentation of journalism’s death blaming all the usual things: the Internet, bloggers, opinion-shouting cable TV, decreasing attention spans in our youth (that we raised and educated) ... Blah blah blah. Yeah, there used to be these civic institutions called newspapers that needed to sell lots of car ads to keep going, but now are being destroyed by Craigslist.
The Honolulu Star-Bulletin, founded in 1882 as the Evening Bulletin, published its first edition on February 1 of that year. 1912 saw it merge with the Hawaiian Star to become the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. Recently this institution has been put up for sale in the current panic atmosphere of cash, hemorrhage, and closure among newspapers, leaving many Honolulu residents to assume that we will soon be down to one major daily, The Honolulu Advertiser, which celebrated its 150th anniversary not long ago.
Meanwhile, several of our local TV stations have recently “consolidated” their news operations, which means running the same newscast on two stations, and then re-broadcasting it at a different time on a third station. Their news director, Chris Archer, tried to sound upbeat at a conference on March 18 here in Honolulu called NewsMorphosis 2.0 How the Transformation in our News Media is Transforming our Society. I wish him well as the operation prepares to take on its first Merrie Monarch Festival, a revered local institution sometimes called the “Olympics of Hula” that brings dancers, fans, and eyeballs from around the world to sleepy Hilo on Hawaii Island every Spring. You could tell he was excited about this “away game” far from Honolulu City lights.
Into this trembling moment steps a millionaire (billionaire?)—Pierre Omidyar. Born in Paris, Omidyar came to the United States with his physician father as a boy and graduated from Tufts University in 1988 with a computer science degree, but not before spending some time as a student in Honolulu at President Barack Obama’s high school alma mater, Punahou School. Among other things, Omidyar started a little online auction company called Auction Web in 1995, largely so his Bay Area friends could more easily trade and collect Pez dispensers. He later changed the name of that company to eBay in 1997. Cue the angelic choirs of capitalism!
This tyro with a local connection confirmed his genius by moving back to Hawaii with his wife Pamela, and has lately been spreading the wealth around in socially constructive ways, such as a $100 million endowment of the Hawaii Community Foundation.
The generous Omidyars were also instrumental in the launching of Kanu Hawaii, a grassroots movement of “9,443 islanders committed to protect and promote island living—a connection to the aina, a culture of aloha, and local economic self reliance.”
Now, the philanthropists are investing in an interesting new endeavor. Peer News is to be an online-only local news service described as a new town square, mixing the reporting and analysis of paid professional journalists with the contributions of “average” citizen participants, such as bloggers.
John Temple, Pulitzer award-winning editor, president, and publisher of the late lamented Rocky Mountain News is Peer News’ founding editor, and the newest intellectual landmark on Oahu, drawing a virtual who’s who of Honolulu media, communications, policy, tech, and entrepreneurial types to the conference. I sat between my old friend Kim Coco Iwamoto, elected Hawaii School Board member, and the sharp Susan Yamada, Interim Executive Director of the University of Hawaii’s Shidler College of Business. Star tech reporter and author, Sarah Lacy flew in from Asia for a lively panel, as did William Moss (CNET Asia, China Economic Review). The founding executive director of the George Washington University Global Media Institute, and former general manager of CBS Radio News, Michael Freedman spoke, as did, the day’s informative keynote, Avi Soifer, Dean of UH’s Richardson School of Law.
With the enviable freedom of a visiting writer whose reporting continues to be sought, lauded, and deservedly rewarded, Sarah Lacy pointed out that in today’s landscape of personal, even portable, news options, the “traditional media is doing a worse job. I read things in the New York Times tech section that is just wrong.” She also made the attending local newspaper pooh-bahs squirm when she scorned inauthentic “AstroTurf” tweets that are just re-packaged paragraphs by established news people who don’t really comprehend the medium.”
Temple inspired some stirring of excitement as he spoke of “lots of reasons for optimism in this age of surprises, twists, and turns.” Content being the critical issue, not platform. “I am not prescient,” he said, but “we’re gonna approach things differently at Peer News.”
Temple continued: “People feel concerned and disconnected. Peer News is aimed at providing a different voice, giving folks entre and a fresh start. Our mission statement is simple: To create a new civic square. Citizen contributions will be as integral as paid journalists. The reporting is a resource, sort of a living history on topics as things develop. Big Picture will be inherent, not just today’s ‘story.’ We’ll start with the readers’ needs, and be question-oriented, driven by asking ‘why?’ Let’s talk about community. Reporter/hosts working for readers, not as detached ‘chroniclers,’ no slightly rewritten press releases. And no faceless comments. In the civic square we can see each others’ faces. Discussion and debate will be hosted. It’s about speaking to hard issues but with aloha, which I am beginning to learn about. I envision a dialogue with other views, straightforward, to fulfill common needs.”
Temple says that he expects to present “content and an experience worth paying for” as early as the second quarter of this year.
The pithiest remarks of the day came from my favorite truth-teller, the much respected local editorialist/blogger David Shapiro, who responded to his introduction as one of the best Hawaii journalists by saying that it was “like being called one of the best dinosaurs in the tar pit.” He commented on the hubris-panic of the traditional “gate-keepers” by advising them to realize that the gate is “now a swinging door” and that they have morphed perhaps into filters.
Now David is a kind reader of my little Hawaii novel, and a respected long-time Internet friend. His often brilliantly funny jabs at the local circus of power called the State and City government are the best thing at the Advertiser. Yesterday I got a chance to hug him local-style. Wish I had thought to build on his swinging door analogy by wittily adding to it: “Yeah, a swinging door. Just don’t let it hit you on the okole!”
So I am truly sorry if you are losing one of your local institutions, but I’m happy to say that our Honolulu seems poised to enjoy the birth of something truly hopeful and groundbreaking. One thing I do know is that a local outsider, small fry, columnist/blogger walked into that conference feeling like a nobody, but I walked out feeling empowered.
Join Cloudia W. Charters for more Honolulu Happenings daily at the Comfort Spiral, Charters is the author of Aloha Where You Like Go?, available at Amazon or the Hawaii State Library.