This email was sent out from Dayton Morinaga a couple hours ago. He's done amazing things for our sport for the past 18 years. Let's show our support.
Aloha all,
As you may or may not know, The Honolulu Advertiser will be shutting down for business on June 6. A new newspaper called The Honolulu Star-Advertiser will begin on June 7.
Unfortunately, I was not hired by the new newspaper, so my run as a reporter is over for now.
The Star-Advertiser will be run by the current management of the Star-Bulletin (which also made the decisions on the hirings).
While it may be too late to save my job, it is not too late for the paddling community to make a difference in the coverage of ocean sports.
I have taken great pride in developing the newspaper coverage of ocean sports for the last 18 years and have immensely enjoyed working with all of you.
My fear now is that coverage of ocean sports will be downsized at this new newspaper.
While I respect my colleagues at the Star-Bulletin, their coverage of ocean sports has been inconsistent. They have not had a full-time reporter write stories on ocean sports for several years now and are currently covering it with "freelancers."
Hawaii's state sports truly deserve better.
I urge all of you to write or call the management team at the Star-Advertiser to voice your concerns over upcoming coverage of ocean sports. Again, there will be only one newspaper in this town starting June 7, and ocean sports deserves a fair share on the sports pages.
I also urge you to spread the word to your colleagues, teammates, students, coaches, or what ever the case may be. I think strength in numbers can make a difference here to show the powers that be how popular ocean sports is in Hawaii.
I will send the contact info for the Star-Bulletin managers shortly in a separate e-mail.
Thanks again to all of you who have made this a memorable ride for me. I hope we can all cross paths (or oceans) again soon.
Aloha and mahalo,
Dayton Morinaga
Here are the people to call or e-mail at the Star-Bulletin:
Dennis Francis (president and publisher): dfrancis@starbulletin.com or
529-4702
Frank Bridgewater (editor): fbridgewater@starbulletin.com or 529-4791
Paul Arnett (sports editor): parnett@starbulletin.com or 529-4786
Submitted by keizo on Wed, 06/02/2010 - 8:19pm
aloha and mahalo for all that you've done. good luck in your future endeavors.
#1 Wed, 06/02/2010 - 9:27pm
The Star Bulletin has not covered local water sports for years and their coverage of local sports is minimal. Please contact the people listed above to express your concern. I will be doing so and I plan to let them know that I will be discontinuing my subscription to the new Star-Advertiser; I will happily renew my subscription once they have illustrated their ability to properly cover local sports - including water sports.
Sports is big business to Hawaii. The amount of visitors that travel to our state for sporting events is huge and it is vitally important that our local paper cover the sports of Hawaii; sports coverage is much more than baseball, basketball & football.
Once again, please contact the people listed above on behalf of all water sports enthusiasts.
Geoff Graf
#2 Wed, 06/02/2010 - 9:37pm
JUST THOUGHT I'D BUMP THIS BACK TO THE TOP. DAYTON HAS DONE MANY GREAT THINGS FOR OUR SPORT AND COVERED PADDLING TRIPS THAT HAVE TAKEN PLACE ALL OVER THE WORLD. PLEASE WRITE TO THE PEOPLE LISTED ABOVE.
#3 Thu, 06/03/2010 - 7:23am
That's a bummer. The attention Dayton has given to our sport is unparalleled. Surely, the coverage will suffer as a result of his not being hired by the new paper.
#4 Thu, 06/03/2010 - 7:33am
Check out the Honolulu MidWeek for this week. Ron Mitsutani has published a great article on the Paa Eono Hoe and the involvement by some of those responsible for the progression of lightweight wa'a. My point is that there are other advocates for canoeing in our media as well and are all appreciated. Marara
#5 Thu, 06/03/2010 - 8:56am
Thank you for your support over the years Dayton. You will be missed.
#6 Thu, 06/03/2010 - 10:57am
I think that some people are missing the point regarding the decision by the new Star Advertiser to not hire Dayton Morinaga. The decision is a predictor of the importance the largest daily newspaper serving our market area is placing on ocean sports.
Media coverage is extremely important when seeking sponsorships and exposing the casual observer to any sport. Ask anyone who has produced a race or race series and they will tell you how difficult it is to obtain and maintain sponsorships for ocean sports – or to explain to a casual observer/sponsor what the sport is. Unfortunately many of our ocean sports are not as spectator friendly or as easy to produce as other sports; so it is vitally important that we fight to maintain (and I would say increase) coverage for ocean sports.
I recently prepared an economic impact study for the HTA on the 2008 Molokai to Oahu Championships. The total direct economic impact to the state exceeded $270,000 (excluding air travel to Hawaii). The media exposure for this one race was valued at over $3,000,000. This is one race!
Ocean sports are extremely underrated and the ocean sports community needs to raise its voice so that we are recognized as a large and diverse demographic mix with a large economic footprint in the state of Hawaii.
It is fine to wish Dayton Morinaga well and thank him for his years of service; it is also fine to recognize Ron Mizutani and his coverage in Mid Week. But please take the time to voice the need for Hawaii’s largest daily newspaper to recognize the importance of covering ocean sports; let them know that the decision they have made based on economics may just hurt them economically through the loss of daily subscribers.
#7 Thu, 06/03/2010 - 3:49pm
Honolulu Starvertizer.
#8 Thu, 06/03/2010 - 4:18pm
Sorry to hear about losing the job. But, with all the other news papers shutting down, it's just a matter of time before the The Honolulu Pravdatiser went out of business. Now, it's just a matter of time before the Red-Star-Bulletin shuts down.
Here's a tip, stop all of the liberal-biased reporting and you just might save your paper.
If you're saying, "Our paper isn't biased," your stupid and you deserve to go out of business.
#9 Fri, 06/04/2010 - 3:14pm
All I gotta say is WTF? Last I checked this was ocpaddler.com NOT Foxnews.@$$
#10 Thu, 06/03/2010 - 6:11pm
You're losing.
#11 Thu, 06/03/2010 - 8:28pm
Took me less than a minute.
#12 Fri, 06/04/2010 - 7:16am
Don't get me wrong. The islands have benefited greatly from the many years of Advertiser publication. Let me list them.
1. The landfills have grown immensely because of it.
2. Numerous bird cages have been kept clean using them.
3. Hundreds of homeless people have been kept warm.
4. Many road side plants are regularly decorated with its pages.
5. And, there's nothing I love more than paddling in the beautiful Hawaiian waters and having pages of the Advertiser float by.
#13 Fri, 06/04/2010 - 8:17am
In my personal opinion I always thought the Honolulu Advertiser was a much better paper than Star Bulletin and was surprised when I heard the Advertiser was in the situation that it is.
But in terms of paddling's exposure, hands down no matter how you look at it more coverage as well as quality coverage of paddling will benefit everyone. Whether you look at it economically where events bring in tons of money for the state and businesses can capitalize on (e.g. Moloka'i Hoe), athletically where you have the strong physical and mental aspects not to mention a level of technicality that supersedes so many other sports, and not only will more exposure create new paddlers but those paddlers will become tied to it in some way because of the deep history and philosophy of the sport.
From there you could say that more people will not only be exposed to it but will truly understand paddling thus more spectators and/or athletes. Especially since you can paddle at virtually any age or skill level, environmentally the waters may benefit because of the huge respect paddlers have of the ocean, health amongst our general population would improve, etc.
I could go on for days ranting about the benefits of paddling and the giant ripple effect that would take place socially, economically, internationally, etc. with more significant coverage. Though it needs to start some where and since there's only one paper in town I hope they get on it and realize that they're sitting on a gold mine and not just monetarily.
#14 Fri, 06/04/2010 - 9:40am
Why do angry Right Wingers have such a hard time with the word 'losing'? It's not loosing. It's losing.
#15 Fri, 06/04/2010 - 11:03am