Honolulu Says Aloha To Ad-Free Experiment

That leaves this market -- the nation’s 61^st largest in terms of population, and Nielsen's No. 72 media market, with an estimated $413 million in local ad spending (according to Borrell Associates) -- with one major newspaper site, three prominent TV Web sites, the ad-less news site, and a smattering of others.

The newspaper’s StarAdvertiser.com -- created after the Honolulu Advertiser merged into the smaller Honolulu Star-Bulletin last year -- is considered the dominant local news site, according to Brent Suyama, managing editor at rival KITV.com.

But that’s not always the case. In March, as earthquake and tsunami video streamed from Japan, KITV.com drew more traffic, according to Suyama. Unique visitors leaped to more than 1 million that month, compared with about 340,000 the month before and 530,000 in January, he said. Another TV site, HawaiiNewsNow.com, said it did even better -- with almost 1.7 million unique visitors in March.

Among TV sites, KITV sees competition from KHON2, as well as KGMB, KHNL and K5, which operate under the Internet umbrella of HawaiiNewsNow.com. News operations for the stations merged in August 2009, sparking an ongoing citizens' complaint to the Federal Communications Commission questioning the legality of the consolidation.

However, it’s the ad-less Honolulu Civil Beat that has perhaps attracted the most national attention. Pierre Omidyar, who made billions with his creation eBay, last year used some of that money to co-found Civil Beat.

Still, despite its techie genes, the news site doesn’t attract attention for technical prowess. It has yet to roll out apps and, said Civil Beat editor John Temple, “Our site is not about gadgets or a cool tech feature … It’s about the journalism.”

In this instance, “the journalism” means public affairs reporting and providing a “civic square” where locals can discuss the issues of the day. A staff of 14 writes blogs and covers news and government happenings from a watchdog’s perspective, according to Temple, who left Denver’s Rocky Mountain News after it shut down in 2009.

Civil Beat arose from the ether last May with a strict paywall at a time when others were still mulling over the idea--and it charges a hefty price. News junkies who want full access to Civil Beat’s coverage must pay $19.99-a-month, or $119.99 for six months, $239.99 for a year.

That, critics have noted, is more than an online subscription to far more established sites, such as The Wall Street Journal.

Temple refused to say how many subscribers have signed on. “Membership is not really a measure we’re talking about.”

More important, according to Temple, is the fact that -- in a state with a population of 1.3 million -- almost 500,000 people have visited his news site. “We’re not selling an audience to anyone. We’re serving an audience.”

Co-founders Omidyar and former eBay executive Randy Ching are “very satisfied with the kind of engagement we’re getting” in terms of the amount of time users spend on the site and the sense of community it has built, Temple said.

He adds that there is no charge to follow comments posted by site users. People who want to add their own thoughts do have to buy a 99-cent per month subscription, something that can be arranged through PayPal, which Omidyar’s eBay owns.

The 99-cent price tag shouldn’t discourage anyone from joining the conversation, Temple argued.

And requiring payment yields a second benefit, he said: It encourages a more thoughtful conversation by eliminating the anonymity that can spark intemperate outbursts. “On Civil Beat, you’ve got to actually take responsibility for your words,” Temple said.

Some locals are less-than impressed by CivilBeat.com’s impact. “On the surface, it doesn’t seem to have a lot of subscribers,” said Gerald Kato, associate professor of journalism at the University of Hawaii.

“I’m not convinced the economic model will work,” he added. But, “They’ve gone on longer than I thought they would.” And, he pointed out, they’re hiring.

“They have a billionaire behind them,” noted Larry Geller, who early on criticized the site’s monetary demands.

While Civil Beat tests the subscriber waters, other Honolulu sites have been toying with new technology.

Suyama’s site, KITV.com, for example, plans to use CoreMedia later this year to build a new content management system platform and redesign the site, making it easier to navigate and faster to upload.

The site has added a weekly deal called “Half Off Hawaii.” So far, the feature has done “pretty OK,” Suyama said. Its momentum may have been slowed by other entrants in this space, he allowed.

KITV’s owner, Hearst Stations Inc., launched a feature here called “u local” two years ago with the help of KickApps, Suyama said. It lets site users upload photos and video, he said. “We definitely get a lot of play every day on that,” Suyama said. During a recent house fire, people were sending video and photos within a half hour, he said.