Here’s How We Decide What to Cover

We take our mission seriously: “To strengthen the local economy and help our communities thrive.” And to keep us on track with that mission, we created an editorial mantra: “Big Issues, Useful, Unique, Accessible.” Let me walk you through those four elements.

We address Hawai‘i’s biggest concerns in-depth and this issue is a good example. Beverly Creamer lets advocates for each side make their case in “Jones Act: Pro and Con”. Shipping is an important issue for Hawai‘i and worth re-exploring regularly as world and local conditions change, and especially as the number and intensity of hurricanes and tropical storms slowly climb in the Central Pacific over the years.

Noelle Fujii-Oride looks at different approaches that could provide homes for more of the 28,000 Native Hawaiians on the waiting list for homestead lots.

The waiting list is not just a big issue for Hawaiians: Anytime someone moves onto a homestead lot, the home where they had been living usually becomes available to someone else – each a single small step in reducing our housing shortage. However, if the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands continues on its same path, it will be a century before everyone on the waiting list gets a lot.

The DHHL article highlights a couple of ways we like to report on big issues. When issues are too big for a single article – even an in-depth one – we focus on one important part of the issue.

The second way goes beyond just reporting on problems; we also want to describe possible solutions. Not our solutions but solutions offered by credible voices in the community or solutions tried elsewhere that seem to have had some success. That’s part of how Hawaii Business Magazine makes itself useful to our communities.

In most of the CHANGE reports we published monthly from February to July, we ended with a section on “How You Can Help.” That recognizes we all can play a role in problems as wide-ranging as education, struggling working families and climate change.

We also like to report on innovations that address major issues. In this month’s Inside Startup Paradise column, Katarina Matayoshi, a member of the team at Sultan Ventures, reports on carbon-infused concrete. It’s an innovation designed to counter construction’s contribution to carbon emissions and climate change.

We also like being useful to our readers in smaller ways. This issue offers useful advice on making a good first impression at a new job, dealing with difficult colleagues and understanding bonding – not a sexy topic but an important one if you are in the construction business or want to hire a contractor. And it’s clearly explained for the novice on up.

The third element in our editorial mantra is “unique.” There a million stories to cover in Hawai‘i – why cover stories some other media outlets are covering well? So we aim for angles that other media have glossed over or that have not been explored in a while. Sometimes, though, we tackle a big issue even if it has been covered well by others simply because we feel our contribution will be valuable.

The final element in our mantra is “accessible.” That means we want to engage you with our stories. To do that they have to be well-written and tight, creatively designed and enhanced by good pictures, illustrations and infographics. After all, if you aren’t reading our stories, we can’t fulfill our mission. And like I said, we take our mission seriously.