What does it mean to have a free press?
A recent story in the Columbia Journalism Review highlighted the owner of Oahu Publications Inc. Its flagship publication is the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, which it created in 2010 after purchasing the Honolulu Advertiser from Gannett.
The Alabama company Carpenter Media Group acquired Oahu Publications and its media brands in 2024.
A walkout over censorship at a Carpenter-owned newsroom in Alaska prompted a closer look into the company, which is now one of the country’s largest owners of local newspapers.
Freelance investigative journalist Lois Parshley wrote the story for the Columbia Journalism Review. She spoke with HPR's The Conversation about how the story first got on her radar.
“I heard about a reporter who, this September, covered a memorial honoring Charlie Kirk in the small coastal town of Homer, Alaska,” Parshley said, referring to journalist Chloe Pleznac.
Republican Alaska state Rep. Sarah Vance later denounced Pleznac's article in a document with Alaska State Legislature letterhead.
Parshley said that Carpenter removed the article from the local site, altered it to reflect Vance’s objections, and then republished it without a note indicating the changes — all without consulting Pleznac or her editor.
Carpenter has become the country's fourth-largest newspaper company, quickly growing from 27 publications in 2024 to over 250 today, Parshley said.
“In Hawaiʻi, they took over Oahu Publications, which is the parent company of seven papers that they now own, including the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, the Hawaii Tribune-Herald and West Hawaii Today," she said.
"West Hawaii Today, in particular, is a great example. It no longer has any reporters and is essentially a ghost paper. That's a pattern for Carpenter. Its acquisitions have come with widespread layoffs, staff treatment that's led to repeated resignations, and editorial interventions like the one that Pleznac saw."
Parshley said that a decrease in the number of local reporters leads to fewer national stories grounded in everyday people's lives. “It also leaves journalists who once filled those pages with nowhere to go."
She said that communities should feel empowered to ask questions about who owns their news organizations and how many reporters are on staff.
“Local journalism works best when it's being accountable not just to its owners, but to the people it serves,” she said.
This story aired on The Conversation on Feb. 3, 2026. The Conversation airs weekdays at 11 a.m. Hannah Kaʻiulani Coburn adapted this story for the web.
