The Honolulu Star Advertiser

[Honoruru]

Update.

I just Googled that same article and I was able to access it. It might have been that the links were lost because they took down the old Advertiser and Star-Bulletin sites at about the same time.

[Leo Lakio]

Yep - the link works today. Wonder if the content was being "shifted" over the weekend?

[mel]

Google pointed me to an article in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin for May 12. I go there and got Star Advertiser Error 404.

I go to the Archives page in Star Advertiser and they have an index for years pertaining to the Honolulu Star Bulletin and Honolulu Advertiser. I think fine.

I go to Honolulu Star Bulletin link and the entire month of May 2010 is missing... umm... what happened to the news archive for that month?

http://archives.starbulletin.com/con...ive/month/2010

[LikaNui]

They need a little help in the headline writing department.
This morning I'm sitting with my coffee and start reading the paper. Right there on the very front page is a teaser for the Sports section:

WAC FILES SUIT
The Mountain West Conference and recent breakaway members Fresno State and Nevada are plaintiffs. See page C-3.

Uh, yeah, I was barely awake, but the mistake jumped right out. See it yet?
.
.
.
The WAC filed the lawsuit, not the MWC/Fresno/Nevada.
That makes WAC the plaintiffs, and MWC/Fresno/Nevada are the defendants.

Maybe they'll note that in their Corrections section tomorrow.

.

[LikaNui]

Maybe they'll note that in their Corrections section tomorrow.

They did just that.

[TuNnL]

Manini, but a copy editor should have caught that.

Here’s one that’s not so manini... maybe they’ll fix it by dawn, but I have attached a screenshot so you can see lazy incompetence in print form. Is that hard to proof a ready-made wire story?!

[Kimo]

The TV version of this pops up every once in a while - "Insert spot here . . ."

[Amati]

Deleted by Amati

[pzarquon]

I rarely visit the Star-Advertiser site anymore, so this may be old news, but... the 'Print Version' link now points to a third-party ad-framing service called 'Format Dynamics.' Basically, it tries to paginate and flow an article into paper-sized chunks but with prominent ads included.

Of course, many of us loved using the print or mobile versions of stories to avoid the ads, and distributed those links specifically. I can understand needing to add a few more impressions for advertisers by closing the loophole.

But the 'Format Dynamics' layouts are a mess. Article text flows funny, leaves giant white spaces here and there, making the ads even more prominent and ridiculous. They'd have done much better had they just made sure ad code was included in the print version of story pages manually.

Thank heavens for browser tools like Readability and Reader:

• Readability for Firefox
• Readability Redux for Google Chrome
• Safari Reader

Highly recommended, both for clean printouts and for clean web viewing.

[mel]

I like the largely uncluttered and nearly ad free mobile web page for Star-Advertiser. Lately however, they have a small banner to promote their mobile breaking news app for iOS and Android... and the main page content skews to the left instead of center... and the type is slightly smaller.

http://www.staradvertiser.com/mobile/

Individual article pages display as before, centered with bigger type and no ad or graphics clutter. A typical page:

http://www.staradvertiser.com/news/2...ml?mobile=true

Also if you are on the more graphic intensive main site or individual news page, you can add "?mobile=true" to the end of the URL to get a clutter free page that should print OK.

[Walkoff Balk]

I decided to cancel my subscription to the Star Advertiser. It wasn't because of its writing. The problem is when you call them and want to stop delivery on certain days. It's a crapshoot that they get the days right. So, the paper is left on your doorway showing that there's nobody's home for awhile.

[Kaonohi]

I decided to cancel my subscription to the Star Advertiser. It wasn't because of its writing. The problem is when you call them and want to stop delivery on certain days. It's a crapshoot that they get the days right. So, the paper is left on your doorway showing that there's nobody's home for awhile.

It's probably the delivery person, not the newspaper.
I had problems too, but a few phone calls got it fixed. I have a newspaper tube, and they were throwing the paper on my concrete driveway, which ripped the plastic and the paper got wet. I told the manager that either the delivery people used the tube or they'd lose my account, and there has been no further problem; the paper is now always in the tube.

[mel]

Bad news for us who just visit the Starvatiser website:

Later this summer the newspaper's website will go to a paid content model, he said. More than a third of U.S. newspapers are already charging for their content, and the majority of them are expected to introduce paid content in the next 18 months, Francis said.

This item was buried deep inside a story regarding the Starvatiser's one year anniversary.

Link: http://www.staradvertiser.com/busine...ml?mobile=true

[Amati]

Oahu readers said they were 82 percent satisfied with the paper in a recent SMS Research survey, Kennedy said.

Stats are so interesting. Yes, it is probably that most of the "readers" are satisfied, otherwise they'd perhaps not be readers anymore.

I wonder what is the % of Oahu residents [not just readers] who are satisfied with the paper?

And, what % of the current "readers" will remain readers, if a fee is imposed?

Although the article also states,

"Breaking news and a large part of the website will still be free,

and if that is accurate, then I suppose the free readers will still come to the site, to get what limited free information they can.

[buzz1941]

I would guess that news you pay for is still better than no news at all because the provider is out of business.

[Kaonohi]

I would guess that news you pay for is still better than no news at all because the provider is out of business.

Damn! What news do we NOT pay for? (in one way or another)
And, if we get news that we don't pay for, what is it worth???
(I guess it's worth what we pay for it!)

Buzz, you been gone too long. Good to see your face again.

K-~M~

[LikaNui]

Damn! What news do we NOT pay for? (in one way or another)

MidWeek comes free in the mail to everyone on the island. How about that one?

And, if we get news that we don't pay for, what is it worth???

MidWeek is worth what it costs.

[Kaonohi]

MidWeek is worth what it costs.

Well, we agree on that!

[craigwatanabe]

anything's better than the Tribune Herald here in Hilo.

[scrivener]

I won't rule out paying for the paper's content online. I'd like to see what paid access gets me. I've said for years that there are certain things that would have me happily shelling out my money, among them a downloadable NYT crossword puzzle, a customizable comics page (block the comics I hate and let me see the ones I want in my preferred order), and a customizable front page that shows me what I want to see in the order I want to see it. I have a feeling that's not what I'm going to get, but I'm open-minded. Let's see how it goes.

[LikaNui]

I'm wondering if those of us who already pay for a hard subscription will get the online version too, at no extra cost.
We should. But that doesn't mean we will.

[craigwatanabe]

I'm wondering if those of us who already pay for a hard subscription will get the online version too, at no extra cost.
We should. But that doesn't mean we will.

I think all paid subscriptions should have access to the full online monty.

[LikaNui]

I think all paid subscriptions should have access to the full online monty.

Me too, which is why I asked the question. Anybody know the answer? Maybe Buzz does?

[genepark]

Me too, which is why I asked the question. Anybody know the answer? Maybe Buzz does?

That's an answer that's above our pay grade. From my own perspective, it makes sense doesn't it? But I cannot say with any certainty that that's what'll happen.

BTW the news about the paywall model is not new. This was announced last year when the Star-Advertiser emerged.

Scrivener, those are all neat ideas. Have you thought about sending them to the powers that be?

[buzz1941]

I'll find out when the rest of you do!