Charles Apple

Seems like the trend in U.S. newspapers is to show less transparency these days. We don’t report our own difficulties — layoffs or bankruptcies or shutdowns or executive bonuses or newspaper properties going onto the market — anything like we do the other businesses we cover.

But here’s an interesting counterpoint: Four years ago, the tiny Daily News of Bowling Green, Ky. — circulation 20,690 — covered the DUI arrest of a former sheriff’s deputy whose family had suffered tragedy. As you can imagine, readers howled in protest. Managing editor Mike Alexieff wrote a response, saying, in part:

Driving under the influence is the leading cause of fatal accidents on Kentucky roads.

…And yes, if I get a DUI, you can be assured an article about it will be in the newspaper.

So, over the weekend, that actually happened. Alexieff was arrested by a game warden on Federal property — the Mammoth Cave Parkway — and ticketed for:

• Stopping, standing or parking on a limited access highway
• Operating a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol
• Possession of an open alcoholic beverage container in a motor vehicle
• Failure to maintain control of a vehicle

So what happened? See for yourself, in the bottom right corner of page one:

Not only did the paper run the story of the arrest, but also Alexieff resigned. Effective immediately.

Don’t get me wrong: It’s sad this has happened. But this kind of transparency is good for journalism. We should come clean like this more often.

Find the Daily News story here.

Poynter’s Jim Romenesko blogged this today.

I hate publishing depressing news on a Sunday morning — or any morning, for that matter. But here is the final front page of the Honolulu Advertiser:

Here is the final A1 budget meeting:

From left to right: designer Matt Schick, editorial page editor Jim Kelly, assistant editor Marsha McFadden and designer John Bender. The photo is by Advertiser staff photographer Gregory Yamamoto.

Here’s a message written by departing advertising staffers:

The photo is by staffer Norman Shapiro.

Here’s Matt, putting the final edition to bed last night:

And here is the Saturday crew who worked on today’s final:

Thanks to Advertiser design director Christy Strobel — at the bottom right of that group shot — from whose Facebook feed I “borrowed” these last two pictures.

The Advertiser was a wonderfully-designed newspaper. Even as someone who’s never held a copy in my hands, I’ll miss it greatly.

Christy herself is OK, she tells me. She’s begun work for a company that’s launching a travel web site next month. She writes:

We’re hoping the economy will improve enough to make our timing fortuitous.

All this comes about as a result of Gannett’s decision to sell the Advertiser for $125 million — half of what Gannett paid for the property 19 years ago. The new owners — the Honolulu Star Bulletin — are, in fact, a smaller newspaper than the Advertiser. The Star Bulletin hired a few Advertiser folks to join up but not many. Only 28 of 120 newsroom staffers were ported over. More than 400 Advertiser employees, in all, are out of work.

Over at the Star Bulletin, today’s front page also claims to be a “final edition”:

Monday’s Star Bulletin, after all, will be called the Star Advertiser.

Find the Advertiser’s coverage of its own final edition here.

There’s a cool new web site — IfItWasMyMome.com — that will superimpose a rough footprint of the BP oil slick over your zip code area.

Very, very cool.

Y’know, newspapers used to do wonderful things like this. Now, that many papers have eliminated or depleted their art departments, independent web sites that have taken up the slack.

Find IfItWasMyHome here.

Thanks to Hal Janssen for the tip this morning via Facebook.