Star-Bulletin announces layoffs

The Honolulu Star-Bulletin, owned by Black Papers Ltd., the publisher of the Beacon Journal, announced this week that it will cut 17 jobs.

The newspaper’s publisher says the company had no other choice but to layoff employees because of the decrease in ad sales.

The Star-Bulletin was at one time Hawaii’s largest newspaper. The Star-Bulletin has about 92 full-time newsroom staffers. About 80 workers are unionized, according to the Hawaii Newspaper Guild.

A staff meeting was held to inform employees learned that 17 people will be laid off from the newsroom, and the neighbor island bureaus will be shut down.

“They talked about a number of things. And told the people they were going to have a wage freeze. The problem is they have to negotiate that with union. We have a contract that runs till next year,” said Wayne Cahill, Hawaii Newspaper Guild.

Generally speaking, the people who are being let go are those who started working at the Star-Bulletin from August 2006.

“Lowest man on the totem pole is the way to do it — last hired is the first fired,” said Cahill.

The Guild in 2001 made some wage concessions to stall layoffs, but this time the publisher just wanted to cut the staff.

The Star-Bulletin almost came to an end in 1999, following a 117 year run.

But Canadian-based company Black Press bought the Star-Bulletin and saved the newspaper, and saved all the jobs at the Star-Bulletin.

Black Press then created Oahu Publications to oversee the Star-Bulletin, as well as MidWeek.

“They came to us in ‘01 and told us what the problem was, how much money they needed to save, and we worked out a package that gave them wage concessions in return for keeping everyone working. We think that’s the way it should’ve been done this time,” said Cahill. But the company’s publisher says the job cuts this time are necessary.

“It’s been pretty weak for a year. But the last 3 or 4 months it seems to have accelerated. We feel fortunate that it’ll only be at 17, and clearly there will be more operationally, but we haven’t finished that yet and probably be making further reductions in next couple weeks,” said Dennis Francis, Oahu Publications President and Publisher.

The Star-Bulletin will still be published seven days a week, but it will have a different design and format. Instead of the large broadsheet format, the newspaper will be smaller, in a tabloid format similar to the size of MidWeek.

(Source: KHON 2 News)