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If you go to the website, you’ll see that their mission is in, “Bringing together, supporting and increasing the agency of young public servants and social entrepreneurs in Hawaii.” Through their recently re-launched live event series called First Tuesdays, they plan to do exactly that. First Tuesdays are, “…casual and energizing coffee hours (that) will continue to provide a space for local nonprofits and social entrepreneurs to connect and talk story.” For their initial event they invited Ikaika Hussey, Publisher of and myself to discuss the future of news and journalism in Hawaii.

We began by describing some of the similarities and differences between our two publications. Ikaika talked about the origins of the The Hawaii Independent and how it strives to deliver hyper-local news. From the North Shore to Downtown, Kauai, Maui and everything in between. Ikaika expressed his passion for true investigative journalism, and sourced a few stories that he was proud to say were first published on The Hawaii Independent. He also mentioned their coverage of arts and events around Hawaii, as he felt that the culture of the islands was equally as important as the issues.

When asked about the upcoming elections, Ikaika and I laughed over how many items we agreed on as being critical. “This isn’t much of a debate, is it?” I joked. We both commented on civil unions, homelessness, education, the economy, rail, and even the topics published in the book The Value of Hawaii. Both The Hawaii Independent and Civil Beat have hosted events to promote the ideas from the book on Hawaii history and culture.

Envision Hawaii then asked how Civil Beat was different from traditional print publications and sites like The Hawaii Independent. I told the audience that although we may share many of the stories with other news sources, Civil Beat will not chase ambulances – we’ll focus on the bigger issues that face Honolulu and Hawaii. Breaking news is an important aspect of local media that is already covered well, so we want to stand out by being different with our approach. We cover breaking news when it relates to one of the issues, such as elections or human trafficking, where we’re dedicating our efforts. When asked what “different” meant, I fell into one of my rants.

I spoke about our in-depth, investigative journalists who not only produce articles but also the topic page resources that help educate our readers. I explained our commitment to transparency and accountability with articles like Civil Beat Shares Hawaii State Employee Salaries and Civil Beat Shares University of Hawaii Salaries. I talked about how one of my favorite elements of Civil Beat is that we do not allow anonymous comments on our articles. This means if you want to say it, you have to own it. Our discussion section is where a lot of my time is spent. Not necessarily commenting, but reading and learning about our members. I also talked about how our subscription based model meant there was no advertising on our site. To put that in context, it means our only relationship is with our members; no advertising quotas to meet at Civil Beat.

The crowd was intrigued by many of the ideas that Ikaika and I shared, but there was also no shortage for suggestions. We talked about better navigation, deeper content and easier access of both sites. We spoke about creating special offers and partnerships with nonprofits, students and other groups who could benefit from our content. The ability for discussions and more promotion were some elements that The Hawaii Independent committed to on the spot. As for me, I just told them I needed to nag that dumb Marketing/Community Host at Civil Beat to get going on all their requests.