Kudos to Honuguide

Congrats to our friends at Honuguide – they’ve done a great job with their second edition. Kudos to Tyler and Jason for their great work!

The state of Hawaii

Gov. Lingle presented her annual State of the State address today at the Capitol. The Hawaii Independent is inviting our readers and friends to broaden the discussion, in a section titled “The state of Hawaii.” This new section will feature essays from, and interviews with, a broad cross-section of Hawaii: parents, clergy, fishermen, hunters, businessowners, teachers, academics, poliicians, students, military, hotel workers, and others. The common question that the new section will answer is simply, “What is it like to live in Hawaii? How are we really doing?”

I believe that we, together, can paint a more thorough picture of the true state of Hawaii, through the words of our residents.

I’d like to invite you to respond to these questions. Send it to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

We reserve the right to edit and publish any submissions.

Weekly Edition - Dec. 18

Happy Holidays!

In a week marked with setbacks on furloughs, the state deficit, and a resolution to the B&B debate, we’ve made some progress. We’ve launched a Masthead page, with contact info and biographies for most of our writers, plus an ongoing blog where I’ll be documenting the growth of our paper. Travis Quezon is writing about our editorial process on our Facebook page. Be sure to check out Barb Forsyth’s piece on localcentric holiday shopping. Indigenous Pacific voices have been represented in Copenhagen. And finally, we’re building a slate of in-depth reports for the new year, and would like your input on stories you’d like covered. Mahalo for your feedback and your support!

Yes, we do need caffeine

Michele McLellan provides rough categories for new journalism business models in a recent piece for the Knight Digital Media Center. I’d say that we’re working in the space between #2 (“The local news entrepreneurs”) and #3 (“The community lovers”). Our strength is certainly our grounding in local communities. And we certainly do need caffeine, which is why I’m thankful for the constellation of coffee shops around our downtown office – Downtown Coffee, BadAss, the Mix, Satura, et al. We couldn’t do it without all of you:)

A unique aspect of our work here at the Independent is our community-supported business model. Our HI Value program of discounts and deals gives a reason for readers to subscribe, above and beyond supporting local journalism. I’m hoping that it’s a model that can be applied to other hyperlocal news sites.

#journalism

“Future of the forum” symposium videos are now online.

From across the Pacific, I tuned into the video feed from UC Berkeley’s Future of the Forum. It was an excellent series of discussions, interrupted only by slow broadband and the UH-Wisconsin game. You can find the archive here.

#fotf

Masthead is up-to-date

We’ve finally managed to get most of our staff bios online. Enjoy.

The Chinatown News

Mahalo to Nella Media Group, the team behind Honu Guide and the new Go! in-flight magazine, innov8. Their monthly Chinatown News will publish content from The Hawaii Independent in their pages. Please support their advertisers, and pick up the Chinatown News every First Friday. See you Friday!

Contact, About pages updated

We’ve updated our “Contact” and “About” pages. The links have been fixed, and the content is current. Sorry to inconvenience those who have been curious about The Hawaii Independent. Thanks for your interest!