News
Maui newspaper cuts, latest sign of financial difficulties in Hawaii’s news industry
The Maui News has announced plans to reduce its daily print edition to once a week, shifting the island’s 124-year-old newspaper to a digital model as its owner continues to search for a buyer.
Chris Minford, the newspaper’s editor and circulation manager, notified readers of the change to home delivery only on Thursdays, which begins June 6, and outlined plans for a digital future in an open letter to readers. He described the move as an “entrepreneurial decision.”
“This is the future of local news — and moving there now will allow us to continue serving you in the most effective way,” Minford said in the letter published on the front page of the paper’s Thursday edition.
Minford did not respond to a request for comment.
Whenever a local news organization makes cuts, there are risks to the community it covers. Less scrutiny of public officials. Less civic engagement. More political polarization. Ogden Newspapers’ decision to reduce its print product to a weekly publication is coming at a time when several newspapers in Hawaii are carrying signs of financial difficulties.
It also comes on the heels of the deadliest American wildfire in more than a century. Recovery from the Lahaina fire, which killed at least 101 people, displaced 13,000 survivors and caused about $6 billion in property damage, is expected to be a slow and painful process.
“It’s really unfortunate what’s happening to The Maui News and the timing makes it all the more tragic,” said Colin Moore, a political scientist at the University of Hawaii Manoa. “In a situation like Maui where trust is already low, it is more important than ever that the people responsible for fire recovery are held accountable and these cuts only make it more difficult.”
“I hope they can survive this way, but it certainly won’t be the role I grew up with.”
Lee Imada, formerly of The Maui News
Maui government officials have faced increasing scrutiny in recent months. National media flocked to the island days after August’s deadly wildfires and regularly grilled authorities in what became controversial news briefings during the chaotic first few weeks.
Many of the national reporters who arrived on Maui left almost as quickly as they arrived. And unlike local journalists, their foreign status often means they are unfamiliar with Maui’s cultural nuances and political dynamics — factors that can give important context to community news.
“What’s not always appreciated about local news organizations is that they know the community,” Moore said. “It’s very difficult to parachute into a community — even if you have tremendous resources like The New York Times or The Washington Post — and make those connections quickly and develop sources that trust you to understand your story. I think this is something that local media can offer that no one else can.”
Publishing a print and online edition, Maui news is a leading source of community journalism on Maui, Molokai and Lanai. But the newspaper, which had an editorial staff of 30 for much of the 1980s and 1990s, in recent years has drastically reduced its coverage and the size of its staff.
In June, West Virginia-based media company Ogden Newspapers announced its intention to sell the newspaper amid years-long contract negotiations with the Pacific Media Workers Guild, which represents the newspaper’s union membership. Ogden has owned The Maui News since 2000.
Lee Imada, who retired from the newspaper after a 39-year career in 2020, said constant cuts and retrenchments have been a blow to the community.
“As the recently deceased editor-in-chief, I tried to pass the torch,” Imada said. “Something was given to me and I wanted to make sure it was passed on to the next generation of readers, and unfortunately, it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen. I hope they can survive this way, but it certainly won’t be the role I grew up with.”
Newsroom cuts have become an industry norm, driven by evaporating profits. Nationally, local newspapers are dying at a rate of two per week.
In Hawaii, some neighboring island newspapers struggling to find enough drivers to deliver newspapers on time have switched to postal delivery. For some subscribers, this means the newspaper arrives in the afternoon, after the news on its pages has become stale.
Other signs of a weakening local news industry include employee leaves, voluntary acquisitions and changes of ownership.
O Honolulu Star Advertiser it changed hands in March as part of a court-supervised debt settlement. The largest newspaper in the state, as well as The Garden Island in Kauai, The Hawaii Tribune Herald, West Hawaii today and Midweek, is now owned by Carpenter Media Group, which owns more than two dozen small town newspapers in Louisiana, Mississippi and other southern states.
The Garden Island, Kauai’s official newspaper since 1901, has long struggled to retain editorial staff, relying on a revolving door of mainland recruits to fill a dwindling number of newsroom positions.
Lanai today was unable to publish a May edition last year after the newspaper lost its editor and head writer, Nelinia Cabiles, who took over when billionaire Larry Ellison purchased the island’s only dedicated news source.
West Hawaii today recently lost its top reporter, Nancy Cook Lauer, whose years-long investigation by Billy Kenoi exposed the misuse of a county-issued credit card by the former Big Island mayor. The Molokai Dispatch lost its longtime editor and chief reporter, Catherine Cluett Pactol, in August.
The loss of coverage in Hawaii has meant that local government livelihood reporting simply isn’t as robust as it once was.
“We wanted to go down fighting,” Imada said of the feeling in the newsroom when he was leading The Maui News, facing a tough financial forecast a few years ago. “My only complaint is that we couldn’t do it. It just seems like part of the newspaper industry’s death spiral.”
Civil Beat’s coverage of Maui County is supported in part by a grant from the Nuestro Futuro Foundation.
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