Our new contract with the Guild includes bonuses payable when our daily circulation reaches 90,000 and when our new Sunday edition hits 100,000. We think setting goals like these will insure the whole company works together. We're also establishing an employee-ownership plan under which our people will own five percent of the company, each with an equal share. The key point is to encourage people to work together, knowing that when any one does well, everyone succeeds. Over the years, salary scales for Honolulu's two dailies have discouraged hiring bright young people from Hawaii's journalism schools.
Cub reporters are virtually extinct here.
Few editors are willing to take chances on beginners, no matter how promising, when proven veterans can be had for 30 percent more. Too many of Hawaii's new talents go to the mainland or stay out of print journalism entirely while our newsrooms are disproportionately staffed with mainland imports. Experience is valuable, of course, but there can be too much of a good thing. Energy, new ideas, understanding what younger readers want to read are also vitally important to a good newspaper. These beginners can learn on the job while moving rapidly up the pay scale.