The Honolulu Star-Advertiser will lay off six editorial employees — 20% of the newsroom — the paper’s union announced Wednesday. The cuts include the paper’s remaining staff photographers, who covered the Maui wildfires.
The layoffs are the latest in a string executed by owner Carpenter Media Group at its papers this year. The company, based in the Deep South, went from being relatively unknown to becoming the sixth-largest newspaper owner in the country over the past year. During that time, the chain laid off dozens of workers in what the Honolulu Star-Advertiser Guild described as a “pattern” of acquisitions and subsequent layoffs.
“Perhaps (company chairman) Mr. (Todd) Carpenter should spend more time ‘protecting and leading’ news outlets he has already bought, rather than going on buying sprees for new acquisitions his company evidently can’t afford,” the union wrote in a statement.
Carpenter Media Group’s website lists more than 130 titles across 20 states — many of which it acquired this year. In March, it bought Black Press Media, which owned Oahu Publications (the Star-Advertiser’s parent company) and Sound Publishing. In June, the company laid off 62 people at Sound Publishing’s Washington papers. That same month, Carpenter Media Group acquired Oregon-based Pamplin Media Group. Six weeks later, it instituted layoffs.
Carpenter Media Group did not respond to a request for comment.
Oahu Publications CEO Dennis Francis told Hawaii News Now in a statement that the company decided to implement layoffs “to strengthen the company’s financial future.”
“While job loss decisions are always difficult to make, the evolution of newspaper journalism has hit everyone in the industry hard, and OPI is no exception,” Francis said. “For local journalism to succeed and for OPI to remain the Hawaiʻi-produced paper our community relies on, we must maintain a resilient financial business.”
More than 80 outlets have implemented layoffs this year as companies continue to struggle with shortfalls in advertising revenue and declining readership.
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