My parents saved dictators, communism and fascism for a better life. They knew that democracy was intertwined with facts based on facts.
IF You count the five years I have submitted newspapers as a kid, I have worked in the news business for 55 years. I am proud of the work my colleagues and I did – we were never perfect, but most of us worked hard to provide accurate, useful and timely information that was essential to people’s lives and democracy.
While I look forward to retirement as editor -in -chief of Business Magazine in Hawaii Midyear, I am equally upset about the future of our democracy and the future of good independent journalism because they are so intertwined.
Initially I learned about that connection from my parents; It was nothing they said, but what they did. They ran strong working class lives, but they made time to read newspapers and watch television news almost every day because they were also dedicated to the citizens of their adopted country.
They had escaped the dictators, communism and fascism in Europe and knew how important democracy was for their present and the future of their children. They realized that the journalist was essential for that equation. Watergate reinforced that lesson for me.
The problems of money
Local news media faces many major challenges, but money is essential to all of them. Everyone depends on the money that comes: for the news media-the profitable or non-profit-it means money from advertising, circulating, grants, donations, sponsors or sugar fathers.
Across the country and in Hawai’i, local media was once owned by locals who were among the richest people in the city. (As the old joke goes, “Freedom of the press belongs to those who own one.”) Think CEC Hefttel (KGMB), Chinn Ho (Honolulu Star-Boulett) and twigg-smith (Honolulu advertising).
Many of them and their families made their money from the news media because the news business was profitable. Today it is more common for local media owners to be based on the continent or make money in another field before buying or starting local media.
At the end of this century, the two daily Honolulu had about 200 total news staff. Today, the united newspaper, Star-Advertiser, has about 40 and is owned by Carpenter Media and its finance partners on the continent.
Hawaii business and her sister magazines – Honolulu, Hawai’i and Hawaii Home + Remodeling-There are some of the few exceptions between widely distributed, profitable local media. As our motto declares proudly, we are local owned. Thank God our owner is Duane Kurisu because we are not run by profit we are not. But we are not fried with money either.
Our reporting can be found in our printed magazine and in Hawaiibusepress.com, where it is free for everyone. This means that more people read our stories – I like it. But online ads pay a penny of a penny for view – and that is impossible to please you.
Almost a promise of poverty
For those in the trenches, the journalist was never a route to wealth, but most jobs paid middle -class salaries, and in Hawai’i, this made a good family life with children. Now there is less work and the salaries of many of those who no longer lead to a middle -class family life here. That is why so many journalists have gone through careers in corporate and government communications. It happened a lot in the past, too, but there was a flood in my career because payments and opportunities are almost always better.
Yes, the Internet offers more choices on where you can get your news, but it also provides a million sources of misinformation. And the local news business model is broken. Good reporting requires time, energy and money, and usually involves explaining the nuance and context. Simple lies can be created within free seconds – and many people prefer simple answers.
I feel guilty of retirement when the future of American journalism and democracy is at such a danger. But age and exhaustion forced my hand and I want to enjoy my life in Hawai’i more.
But I will stay fiancé. And if you take care of our democracy, please also invest your time and money in a good independent, local and national journalist. The latest story here, on the continent and abroad, proves that one will not survive without the other.