Photographers who covered Maui wildfires among latest round of newspaper layoffs

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – Big news involving Hawaii’s largest daily newspaper.
The publisher of the Star-Advertiser intends to lay off thirteen employees that include six newsroom staffers.
It includes two staff staff photographers who helped document the Maui fires.
This all comes after a round of job cuts there last summer that led to buyouts for four editorial employees.
Oahu Publications, which just got bought by Carpenter Media Group in March, informed the Pacific Media Workers Guild about the new cuts this past weekend.
The layoffs include long-time Photographer Craig Kojima along with photographer Cindy Russell, and reporter Pat Gee, who’s been writing lifestyle features for 30 years.
The Guild said in a statement, “These losses cut deep at our ability to continue serving communities across Hawaii.”
Among the critics is Former Governor Neil Abercrombie.
“When you have people like Cindy Russell and Craig Kojima that I’ve known personally, this is a corporate layoff and it is as cold hearted as it can be,” said Abercrombie.
“How about the executives? Are they taking any cuts?”
The paper’s publisher, Oahu Publications, said the cuts are meant to strengthen the company’s financial future so that it can continue to serve Hawaii.
In a full statement, CEO Dennis Francis said:
On Friday, OPI made the difficult decision to reduce the size of our workforce to strengthen the company’s financial future and better position us to continue serving our readers and advertisers. OPI employs 254 people, and out of our entire workforce, 13 team members will be departing between now and November 15. 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. 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. We’re deeply saddened to say aloha to our colleagues, and our gratitude for their contributions can never be fully expressed.
Just this year, the Los Angeles Times laid off nearly a quarter of its newsroom along with cuts at Times Magazine and National Geographic.
Politico reports that more than 500 journalists were laid off from U.S. news outlets in January alone.
Photographer Craig Kojima said although he’s sad to lose his job, he’s not bitter and hopes the paper might give him freelancing opportunities.
“My mom always told me, treat every day like it’s your last and that’s what I’ve done,” said Kojima.
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