HONOLULU STAR-BULLETIN

The '''Honolulu Star-Bulletin''', based in Honolulu, Hawaii, is the second largest daily newspaper in the state of Hawaii (the largest being the ''Honolulu Advertiser''.) The ''Honolulu Star-Bulletin'' is owned by Black Press of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. The newspaper is administered by a council of local Hawaii investors.

Contents

Farrington Era

Gannett Era

Black Era

Tim Ryan

Resources

Farrington Era

The ''Honolulu Star-Bulletin'' was founded in 1882 by J. W. Robertson and Company as the ''Evening Bulletin'', publishing its first edition on February 1 of that year. In 1912 it merged with the ''Hawaiian Star'' to become the ''Honolulu Star-Bulletin''. Wallace Rider Farrington, who later became Governor of Hawaii, was the editor of the newspaper from 1898 and the president and publisher from 1912 until his death. His son Joseph Rider Farrington succeeded him and served as president and publisher until his own death in 1954. From 1962 it was owned by a local group of investors led by Elizabeth P. Farrington and entered a joint operating agreement with the ''Honolulu Advertiser'' that shared printing and advertising functions.

Gannett Era

Gannett Pacific Corporation, a subsidiary of Gannett Corporation and owner of the ''Honolulu Advertiser'', purchased the ''Honolulu Star-Bulletin'' in 1971. In 1993, Gannett sold the afternoon edition to Liberty Newspapers in favor of the ''Honolulu Advertiser'', which published in the morning. The ''Honolulu Star-Bulletin's'' circulation declined dramatically. Continued financial problems led to a decision by Liberty in September 1999 to close the ''Honolulu Star-Bulletin'' the following month. The decision was met with fierce resistance in the community and lawsuits were filed against Liberty and Gannett by the state and citizens' groups. The shutdown was postponed with an injunction by a federal district judge two weeks before the scheduled date of closure.

Black Era

In April 2000, Liberty Newspapers offered the ''Honolulu Star-Bulletin'' for sale. The action once again threatened the closure of the publication. In November of that year, Canadian publishing magnate David Black announced his intent to purchase the ''Honolulu Star-Bulletin''. As soon as the purchase was finalized in 2001, Black dissolved the joint operating agreement it had with the ''Honolulu Advertiser'' and moved administration and editorial offices to new headquarters near Honolulu Harbor. The newspaper is printed in Kaneohe, on the presses of the ''Star-Bulletin's'' sister publication, ''MidWeek''. (''MidWeek'' was purchased by Black shortly before the ''Star-Bulletin'' deal was closed.) The newspaper received a major facelift and its readership once again grew.

Tim Ryan

Entertainment columnist Tim Ryan was fired on January 14, 2006 for plagiarising a number of stories during his time at the Star-Bulletin. In a statement on the paper's official website, editor Frank Bridgewater said, "The stories contained phrases or sentences that appeared elsewhere before being included, un-attributed, in stories that ran in the ''Star-Bulletin''. The stories did not include inaccurate information or any fabrications." (full statement) Similarities between Ryan's December 22 review of the History Channel documentary "Secrets of the Black Box: Aloha Flight 243" were first noted on the Wikipedia Signpost [1]. Although Bridgewater did not reference Wikipedia in his official statement, the article itself was corrected by the Star-Bulletin on December 24th. The correction reads:
:"A portion of a review of the television show ''Secrets of the Black Box: Aloha Flight 243'' was taken verbatim from the Web site reference.com. The material was originally published in the online encyclopedia wikipedia.com. [''sic'' – the URL is wikipedia.org] The article, on Page D6 Thursday, failed to attribute the information to either source." [2]

Resources

★ Official website