Friday, February 6, 2009

Hawaii's Star Bulletin to go tabloid















The Honolulu Star-Bulletin is converting from a broadsheet newspaper to a tabloid and taking steps to deal with the recession. 

In publishing as a tabloid, similar in size to MidWeek [which is canned], the Star-Bulletin will join the ranks of the Chicago Tribune, which added a tabloid last month, and other, mostly newer, publications that publish as tabs.

The article states that there's lay offs for both major news papers here and the closing of neighbor island bureaus, as well. 

It's a darn good thing that nothing important has ever happened on a neighbor island. I'm trying to picture a Maui blogger picking up the slack between surfing runs, and all I see are posts like "lets boycott the ferry some more!" and "the top ten places to hide ur weed."

11 comments:

Fugu said...

I'm totally not a racist to outer island folk. You guys are awesome.

Ruby Tenneco said...

Hm. I don't really understand the inner/outer island thing. Is this to do with the Spam sushi?

Anyway, gorgeous drawring, Fugu!

Ruby Tenneco said...

Also! Draw more comic covers! Very fast do draw them!

Galspanic said...

I'm working on three different covers at the moment, but i am hating them all right now. Plus I cant work very long before one of my lil' dudes gets hungry.

odori said...

fugu, at the risk of also sounding anti-neighbor island, i love your assessment of blog-covered news.

on a related note, did you know the big island is home to half of the state's officially sanctioned medical marijuana users? and only 10 percent of the state's population lives there!! hmmm. are people on the big island just exceptionally ill?

Ruby Tenneco said...

Galspanic said...
I'm working on three different covers at the moment, but i am hating them

Don't hating them! Kids are good though obviously.

Fugu said...

Ruby, spam sushi is unlikely an issue as Hawaii is united in strength behind spam as a central and important part of our diet. And thanks! Comic covers are crazy out of my skill range (i'm probably around 150/450), but I'll think about it.

Odori, I did not know that about the big island! This does however connect well with some things I've heard and people I've talked to. This might also lead them to liking spam a little more than us central islanders.

Mr. Pony said...

I believe Cobra tested a Glaucoma Bomb in Hilo in the '80s.

Forgive my possible ignorance (always), but are there any other implications to going tabloid (aside from WWN associations) other than saving some paper? Does the shape affect story format or length?

Mr. Pony said...

Side note: The Weekly World News, which was amazing as a supermarket tabloid, COMPLETELY FAILS as a website.

odori said...

i'm not sure if story length or format would change -- i haven't really read a tabloid-sized daily newspaper on a regular basis so i'm not sure what they're like.

my guess is you'll see longer stories taking up an entire tabloid-size page, instead of, say, half a regular sized paper's page.

i'm really curious to see (and worried about) what the staff cuts will do to the stories we'll read.

the star-bulletin's most talented feature writer is among those being let go. the education writer may also be among the downsized.

apparently the cuts are effective the end of the month.

Mr. Pony said...

Wow, thank you!