A Planetary Makeover

Fairly recently, one of Honolulu's smaller publications, The Downtown Planet, got a makeover courtesy of Pacific Basin Communications, the media moguls responsible for such notable magazines such as Honolulu Magazine, Hawaii Business and Hawaii Home.

Thanks to the award-winning creative team, the once shoddy-looking publication (which we actually used for packing material when shipping products at work) now looks fabulous: where there was once a chaotic mix of typefaces and punctuation, there's now a uniform flow, providing an infotaining weekly that's easy on the eyes with information that's easy to consume (with no additional carbs, for you Atkin's dieters).

The questions is: how do you think the publication will do, now that it's more evenly matched with the Honolulu Weekly, the also weekly paper that has gained street-cred for being the source for the hip, jet-set and cool? Or is it even fair to compare it to the Honolulu Weekly?

Comments

While I heard and maybe seen an issue or two of the Downtown Planet I don't see it widely distrubed around the island unless of course it was only meant to be available in the downtown area.

Then again I'm not much of a regular reader of the Honolulu Weekly.

I never miss an issue of the Weekly, look forward to seeing the new one each Wednesday morning.

But as Helen said, if the Planet wants to compete, they definitely need better distribution (so far as I know, it is not available at UH-Manoa, unlike the Weekly).

The downtown planet does seem to cater to central Oahu, but I have seen stray stands around the Ala Moana and even Kaimuki area -- a coincidence I once thought, but it's stand appears to be regulargly replenished every week.

I always thought the Downtown Planet was begging for acquisition and a makeover. It had a niche, and (somehow) advertisers, staff, and a printer... it just looked like crap.

Even if the content remains so-so, the new look boosts its credibility a dozen fold. (Most high school papers could have done a better job than the last team.) On the other hand, there is no way in heck I'd put it anywhere near the Honolulu Weekly. The Downtown Planet is a fluffed up "newsletter," not a "newspaper," as far as I'm concerned. Corporate press releases, staff promotions, featurettes... all good things, all potentially useful to someone, but an independent, aggressive outlet it's not. It's a closer relative to Midweek, in my opinion - and that's not neccessarily a bad thing.

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