After Deadline
Advertiser welcomes new era of competition

By Saundra Keyes
Editor of The Advertiser

In this new column, Advertiser staffers will regularly chat with readers about what we do and why we do it.

This week The Advertiser and the Star-Bulletin will dissolve their 39-year-old Joint Operating Agreement (JOA) and begin a new era of competition.

The Star-Bulletin’s sale to Canadian publisher David Black, scheduled to close Wednesday, will end 18 months of uncertainty about that paper's future. It will end 18 months of litigation, rumor and divisiveness that have hurt both newsrooms and the community.

And the end of the JOA, through which the newspapers shared business operations and production facilities, will free each to pursue its unique identity. For example, once the presses here in the News Building can be devoted only to The Advertiser, we can publish an afternoon edition. We can print our features and entertainment sections in early press runs, which allows us to increase the amount of deadline news you’ll see.

Meanwhile the Star-Bulletin, which is moving to new offices, has announced plans to compete with us in the morning market.

We welcome the competition.

We welcome it because our future no longer depends on the courts or on the JOA’s requirements. It depends on our commitment to local news reported fully and fairly. And I will match our staff’s commitment to that goal against any newsroom in the country.

Just consider the last few weeks.

If you wanted full coverage of the crash of two Army Blackhawk helicopters, of UH football coach June Jones’ automobile accident, or of the USS Greeneville’s collision with the Ehime Maru, you had to read honoluluadvertiser.com and The Advertiser.

Those were three big stories and three sad stories, each of which our newsroom covered with distinction.

When people ask how we’ll respond to another morning newspaper in our market, I always reply that our goal isn’t to respond. It’s to do the best-quality journalism of which we’re capable and then let you, our readers, judge our worth.

In the last year we’ve gone beyond breaking news to add a number of features addressing the topics you’ve told us are important: the ‘Ohana section on family issues, the Click section on high tech and the Taste section on food. We’ve enhanced our entertainment guide, TGIF.

We’ve added weekly features on military issues and education, increased our stock listings, expanded our sports coverage. And there’s more to come.

We believe that by knowing our community, excelling at local coverage, leading the charge for First Amendment freedoms, listening to you and responding to your interests, we’ll continue to be Hawai‘i’s most essential newspaper.

I’m usually not much on mission statements, but I love The Advertiser’s. It emerged from a staff retreat, the kind of exercise that usually occupies a group for an hour and then goes onto a shelf to gather dust.

This one was different. It resonated so strongly in our newsroom that we put it on our wall and on our editorial page. As our compact with each other and with our readers, it commits us to these goals:

"To chronicle Hawai‘i’s story while being a vigilant partner in helping the Islands shape their future. To be diligent, truthful, accurate and fair. To provide a voice for all of the community. To reflect a love and understanding of this place and its people. To honor Hawai‘i’s ethnic, cultural and social diversity. To cherish the land and sea. To perpetuate the qualities of aloha — tolerance, humility, sharing and respect. To inform, educate and entertain. To be Hawai‘i’s newspaper."

In the end, it doesn’t matter whether our competitor’s primary operations are in Canada (they are) or whether we’re owned by a company headquartered on the Mainland (we are).

What matters is whether we live up to our mission here in Hawai‘i — and we intend to.

Saundra Keyes can be reached at skeyes@honoluluadvertiser.com.

[back to top]