12 staff to be laid off at the Honolulu Star-Advertiser

FILE - In this April 21, 2020, file photo, a man rides his bike on Waikiki Beach in Honolulu. Former Hawaii television reporter Angela Keen knows how to track people down. During the coronavirus pandemic, she's putting her people-finding skills to use as one of the original members of a Facebook group that has grown to more than 2,000 people called "Hawaii Quarantine Kapu Breakers." Kapu is a Hawaiian word that means laws or rules. The group is focused on finding people who violate Hawaii's 14-day quarantine on travelers arriving to the state. (AP Photo/Caleb Jones, File)

A dozen employees at the Honolulu Star-Advertiser will be losing their jobs instead of the expected 29, reports Poynter.

On June 29, Hawaii’s biggest newspaper reported:

“A total of 12 journalists represented by the Pacific Media Workers Guild have agreed to be laid off, and the remainder will take unpaid furloughs totaling six weeks each between now and Feb. 28, the end of the fiscal year. The agreement retains most of the 29 reporters, photographers, page designers, copy editors, online staff and others who received layoff notices on June 11.”

After news of the layoffs surfaced, four former governors appealed to the newspaper to secure those jobs. Christina Jedra reported for Civil Beat:

“As former governors, we know how much democracy depends on a free press. Please support them so that Honolulu’s only daily newspaper can weather this economic crisis and come back strong. We cannot afford to lose it.”

Mariam Ahmed