Hawai‘i’s high school newspapers are dwindling.
A Hawaiʻi Public Radio survey of 44 public high schools found that fewer than half still have a student newspaper journalism program.
The ones that ceased to exist cited similar challenges, such as a lack of student interest, a shortage of newspaper advisers, expensive printing costs, and the elimination of journalism as an English credit.
Meanwhile, the student-run newspapers still alive are struggling to hang on.
“At schools where journalism or news writing or any sort of student media program is not an elective and not a course, but a club that students have to organize and find an adviser for, I think that makes it just way more difficult,” said Brooke Nasser, a Kalani High journalism and English teacher.
She revived her school’s newspaper, Ka Leo O Kalani, in 2017.
The decline of public school newspapers underscores a stark future for the state’s journalism industry. Local news gathering and operations are dominated by graduates of local private schools, which often have more resources and staff support for students interested in pursuing a career in news media.
Having trouble viewing this graphic? Click here to open it in a new tab.
Disparities in the local media landscape
Public school graduates are underrepresented in the candidate pool for local internships.
The Society of Professional Journalists Hawai‘i Chapter sponsors summer internships for college students and recent graduates with local news organizations, including Hawaiʻi Public Radio.
Applicant data provided to HPR revealed that between 2019 and 2024, 20% of finalists for their internships graduated from Hawai‘i public schools. Private school students accounted for 42% of finalists, and those who went to out-of-state schools 31%.
Of the 240 total applicants, only 21% graduated from Hawaiʻi public high schools.
Participation in the annual Hawai‘i High School Journalism Awards has remained stagnant. Most of the first-place awards in the 22 categories went to private schools. Newspaper advisers typically submit their students' work to the award categories.
The cash prize and first-place award for Best in the State went to Sacred Hearts Academy’s student newspaper, Ka Leo, for two years in a row. Before that, it was Hawai‘i Baptist Academy’s Eagle Eye for eight consecutive years.
“There are social disparities in education,” said Dominic Niyo, a student journalist at McKinley High’s student newspaper, The Pinion.
He said since McKinley High is a Title I school, that means students may be less interested in taking journalism classes. Title I is a federal program that helps low-income students by giving schools extra money to provide services and activities.
Niyo said some students pay for their own design software just to make deadlines.
“We also don’t go to the training events, where we often have to figure it out ourselves,” he said, “compared to, I believe some of the private schools have the opportunity to go to the mainland and learn how this stuff works. We don’t have the opportunity to do that.”
Kalani High's Nasser said the issue isn’t as much private versus public, but whether schools will dedicate resources and whether teachers are passionate about journalism.
“If those resources aren’t being prioritized for journalism, then any school, public or private, the program isn’t going anywhere,” she said.
The Hawai’i Department of Education has a career and technical education program, but of the 13 career pathways and programs, journalism isn’t listed.
Under the cultural arts, media and entertainment category, listed areas of study are digital design, fashion and artisan design, and film and media production.
Decline of print newspapers
Many student newspapers have transitioned online or continued as hybrid operations.
Cindy Reves, an English and news writing teacher at McKinley, said she remembers when journalism became popular after the Watergate scandal in the 1970s. She was involved with her high school newspaper and yearbook around the 1980s.
“Being a journalist was the hot thing,” she said.
McKinley has been publishing The Pinion since 1920. It used to be one page, but now it features 16 pages. The Pinion has an on-campus printer that helps get their issues out.
However, other high schools like Moanalua and Mililani briefly stopped publishing their student newspapers after their printing partner, The Hawaiʻi Hochi, closed.
Moanalua’s student paper, Nā Hōkū o Moanalua, mostly prints online but tries to distribute one newspaper magazine per academic quarter.
“Our printing is all in-house on school printers, forcing us to shrink the amount of pages of our printed editions,” said Moanalua newspaper adviser Jessy Shiroma.
Reves said that while newspapers might be dwindling, many are going digital. But she hopes the physical paper won’t go away anytime soon.
“We could move some of our focus into other areas that could be exciting, but just that physical paper for young people, I would hate for that to go away,” she told HPR.
