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Just over three months into my tenure with ������Ƶ, I remain in awe of this accomplished staff that overachieves day after day with one sole goal: Providing crucial information that Hawaiʻi readers won’t find anywhere else. 

Thanks to all of you, our readers, as well for sharing your knowledge with me, ranging from intriguing news tips to challenging hiking suggestions. I’ve been enjoying learning from both.

In our work here at Civil Beat what matters most to me is impact — that by exposing problems and highlighting solutions we inform positive change. By that measure alone 2024 was a stellar year, with the Pulitzer finalist honors for Civil Beat’s Maui fire coverage just one of many recognitions of the value this newsroom brings to the community. 

Some of those outcomes were significant. Days after reporter Blaze Lovell uncovered potential nepotism in grants from Maui’s Office of Economic Development, the mayor put the director on paid leave and ordered an internal audit. Reporter Christina Jedra’s years of dogged coverage of the Red Hill water contamination led up to a full U.S. Navy mea culpa this year.

Others were smaller but no less important to those involved. A high school teacher facing eviction received two rental offers after we wrote about her plight. A Kapiʻolani Community College law professor let us know she used our charter amendment guide in her class to encourage students to be informed voters. 

We also hosted a record number of community events spread around the islands, including candidate forums, popup newsrooms and community storyteller events — 60 in all. We sat down with to talk about the city’s horrendous building permit backup. We invited to discuss the challenges faced by owners and tenants. And we welcomed to share stories at Waimea’s Kahilu Theatre.

In my three months here, we have welcomed several new staff members, including Managing Editor Jonathan Martin, and launched several new coverage areas. Together our team will build on the successes of 2024 by embarking on an ambitious year ahead with five major initiatives: 

• Building a pipeline for aspiring and working journalists from Hawaiʻi and the broader Pacific Islands region through a new multi-tiered training program, a continuum from high school through college and beyond. We aim to change the paradigm instead of accepting the status quo of so few local and Indigenous journalists in general, including among those working in Hawaiʻi.
• Increasing the scope of our coverage of climate change, including exposing its impact on Indigenous people, on human health and on the economy in the broader Pacific region. We believe that Hawaiʻi should be central to the national and international discussion of crises and cures instead of an afterthought.
• Highlighting the frays in Hawaiʻi’s social fabric with a combination of new and renewed coverage of economic inequality, educational achievement gaps and other disparities related to Native Hawaiians, immigrants, women and children. We must help dispel the myth of paradise for all.
• Expanding our essential Let the Sunshine In efforts with enhanced coverage and new columnists. This effort will launch early in the year with our new Sunshine Sundays coverage led by Ideas Editor Patti Epler. We must insist on transparency from our government and other public agencies on behalf of all Hawaiʻi residents, and shine a light on solutions.
• Continuing our full slate of events led by Ben Nishimoto, vice president of operations and philanthropy, ranging from a January conversation featuring editor Nathan Eagle’s recent reporting trip to the edge of the Hawaiian archipelago, Papahānaumokuākea, for his spectacular series, Guardians Of The Deep; to our annual trio of legislative convenings: Preview, Update and Wrap-Up; to Storytelling events focused on parenthood and the people of Lahaina.

As a sneak preview for the Jan. 24 event at Civil Beat headquarters, check out this video of Nathan talking about his Papahānaumokuākea trip.

Meanwhile, we will not back away from our commitment to unearthing political and corporate mismanagement, waste and corruption, and misuse of your tax dollars, particularly as billions begin flowing into Maui. We will continue to evaluate problems in West Oʻahu with the enhanced coverage we launched this fall after four died people in a gun battle there. And we will not let up on stories and public forums that help all of us become better informed participants in our communities and government.

It’s an absolute privilege to lead an organization this healthy into its next phases. I am confident that these changes will set us up to better serve you, our readers, on many fronts, and I appreciate your continued support — we all do. 

And please look us up at our events and keep the news tips coming. You sustain us.