JULY 1, 2015 - VOLUME 30, ISSUE 26
The
Molokai Dispatch
EB CEL
Y
RAT
S EAR
ING
OF
T H E I S L A N D ’S N E W S S O U R C E S I N C E 198 5
NEW
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From black and white editions of “The Coconut Wireless of Molokai” in 1985, to today’s more streamlined banner as seen on the top of each week’s front page, The Molokai Dispatch has had several major facelifts over the last 30 years reflecting evolving technology of the printing industry.
THIS WEEK’S
Dispatch Molokai Dispatch T H E I S L A N D ’S N E W S S O U R C E S I N C E 1985
CELEBRATING
YEARS
OF
NEWS
30TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION FRIDAY, JULY 3, 2015
Blast From the Past
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Please join us at the Molokai Community Health Center at 5:30 p.m. to celebrate three decades of the island’s newspaper. Join us for dinner, free of charge but space is limited and reservations are required. Please RSVP by June 24 by emailing editor@themolokaidispatch.com, calling us at 552-2781 or stopping by and giving us the names of those attending. The evening will include entertainment by Eddie Tanaka and Friends and MoBettah Band, as well as food and prize drawings.
Newspaper Awarded Top Honors
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Molokai Dispatch Celebrates 30 Years By Molokai Dispatch Staff
T
hirty years ago, the first issues of The Molokai Dispatch were pasted together with rubber cement, hand delivered to off-island printers, and, granted the weather was good, delivered each Wednesday to Molokai readers. Over time, operations moved between three locations, five owners, countless writers and interns and three taglines (remember ‘The Coconut Wireless of Molokai?’). Amidst the changes, the Dispatch has emerged as the longest standing—and currently only—newspaper on the island. Each week, The Molokai Dispatch brings news to the island while upholding a set of values and guidelines aimed toward community empowerment and healthy dialogue through responsible journalism. The Dispatch has developed a focus on youth, culture, history, politics and the environment to best serve the interests of the entire Molokai community.
Cut and Paste
Myrle Florea started The Molokai Dispatch in her Kalae home in 1985. On a table that Florea’s daughter Leslee still owns, articles and photographs were physically laid out, painstakingly cut with X-Acto knifes and pasted together with rubber cement. Leslee, who was 10 at the time, spent many late nights watching her mother create the paper. “I didn’t how to type. … I just keep her company,” she said. “I remember falling asleep on the carpet near her.” The first ever Dispatch was eight pages long, and on its front cover was an article discussing the island’s water system. Myrle wrote that this would be a unique paper, dedicated to progress and prosperity. She felt “there was a need on Molokai for a voice,” said Leslee. “My mother was very much one to state facts instead of opinions,” said Leslee. “… It was kind of her way of safeguarding, because if everybody knew, we could act properly. … Because my mother was an educated woman, she expected that everybody
need to be educated also, and if you’re educated, you can make your own decisions.” Myrle passed management of the paper on to Bill Bevens around 1989, who began an internship program, according to former Dispatch writer Kathleen Larson. Bevens moved the location into Kaunakakai—a more convenient location to follow island happenings—and set up shop in the old Kaunakakai electric office. Shortly after, layout of the paper went digital.
Staying Alive In 1992, Bevens sold the Dispatch to Charlie Pastorino, but barely a year later, Pastorino had to move to the mainland. He told his friends, Molokai residents Edie and Gerry Anderson, that he’d have to close the Dispatch or pass ownership over to them, said Edie. With issues of water and land development weighing heavily on the island, the Andersons felt they couldn’t let the paper die out. “At that point, things were pretty
Dispatch Continued pg. 2
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The
Molokai Dispatch
P.O. Box 482219 Kaunakakai, HI 96748
Audwin Calairo Molokai Born & Raised