No sale for Honolulu newspaper

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The Honolulu Star-Bulletin will not be sold, but rather consolidated into the Honolulu Advertiser. The US Department of Justice allowed the merger, after deciding that bids from outsiders to buy the weaker daily were below the liquidation value.


The Star-Bulletin reported that the last bid on the table, from State Senator Sam Slom (R) and his long time business/life partner Malia Zimmerman, co-founder of the online Hawaii Reporter, was rejected by DOJ as too low. The newspaper reported that the bid was in the range of $1.5-2 million. That had been one of three bids submitted after DOJ required Star-Bulletin owner Black Press to put the daily up for sale before buying its stronger rival, the Honolulu Advertiser, from Gannett.

According to the report in the Star-Bulletin the two dailies are expected to continue publishing for a couple of months before consolidating into a single newspaper.