BLOG: ‘The Maui News’ Denies Downsize to 3 Days Per Week

By David Kvasnicka

The new description of The Maui News’ website on Jan. 9, indicating that the newspaper is published “three times per week.” Maui Now image. (Click to enlarge)

Starting in 1900, The Maui News has, for the past few decades of its life, published as a “daily” newspaper.

Fast forward to the internet age. Newspapers almost everywhere have struggled to remain operating; many winding down in various ways. The Detroit News, for example, decided to cut delivery of its paper to three days per week.

The Maui News’ self-description for its website in any web search for years was (with a tweak here or there):

“The Maui News is the best source for news, sports and visitor’s (sic) information for those living, or traveling to Maui, Hawaii. The paper serves all regions of Maui including the communities of Kihei, Lahaina, Kahului, Ulapalakua (sic), and Hana.”

Possibly as recently as Jan. 9, that description (or “meta description” in technical terms) was changed to:

“Maui newspaper, published three times a week with local and state news, sports, entertainment, and classifieds.”

(See screenshot.)

On the question of whether the newspaper was switching  from seven to three days per week, publisher Joe Bradley told Maui Now that that was a “lie.”

“It’s going to be seven days a week forever,” he added.

When quizzed about the change to the meta description on the website now indicating the paper was published three days per week, Bradley said that the website must have been “hacked.”

If that’s the case, it may qualify as one of the weirdest outcomes of a news website hacking ever.

The Maui News started as a weekly paper, later publishing three times per week, before becoming a daily newspaper.

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