Welcoming A New Friend

Honolulu joins PacificBasin Communications at the end of the month.

This is a crucial month for PacificBasin Communications, the company that publishes this magazine and its two sister publications, Hawaii Remodeling and Pacific Magazine. We’re in the last stages of preparing to bring Honolulu into our stable of magazines. That transition takes place at the end of the month.

Last month, we announced our intention to acquire Honolulu and its sister publication, Island Business, from Honolulu Publishing Co. The news caused a stir in local business and media circles, and understandably so. Honolulu is a title with a long and proud history in Hawaii. The magazine began publishing in 1888 under a royal charter, and has been a fixture in these Islands ever since.

Island Business has been our competitor for a number of years, both under its current name and as Hawaii Investor. We will incorporate many of Island Business’ editorial, advertising and circulation programs into Hawaii Business. You’ll see the results of that process beginning with our November issue.

PacificBasin Communications is going to take good care of Honolulu. We know something about taking titles with history and reinvigorating them. The magazine you’re holding in your hands is the oldest regional business magazine in the United States. If you’ve been a reader since 1997, when we bought what was then Hawaii Business Publishing Co., you’ve seen the substantial changes we’ve brought about in Hawaii Business.

Magazines are organic, always in need of growth and nurturing. That’s done by editors, writers and photographers who write with passion, by art directors who infuse publications with dynamic design, by account executives who provide their clients with marketing solutions that work and outstanding service, and by an administrative staff that makes sure you receive your magazine on time and in good condition. It is a process with many moving pieces.

In publishing, the choice is clear: If you become complacent or smug, you’ll all but guarantee that readers will turn elsewhere.

We’re working hard to make sure that doesn’t happen at any of our titles. We’re going to bring our ideas about where Honolulu might go, but it is also clear that the magazine’s talented staff has no shortage of good ideas about where we might head in the coming months and years. I think the excitement of that process at Honolulu will also keep the staffs at Hawaii Business, Hawaii Remodeling and Pacific Magazine on their toes.

That will be good for our magazines, and good for the communities we serve.

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