Owners of NikkeiWest are Introduced!
Reported by Julie Froisland
SAN JOSE, CA – Recently, best friends, Denise Matsuzaki Hayashi and June Oka Yasuhara became the new owners of NikkeiWest newspaper. Denise and June have been active members of the San Jose Japanese American community for many years. I sat down with the new owners of NikkeiWest to discuss their new venture.
First of all, congratulations! How did it come about that you bought the newspaper?
(June): I approached Jeffrey, the original owner, and asked how we could interest the younger generation to be involved with the newspaper. He said that he was ready to retire and I immediately asked him not to do anything as I wanted to try to find someone to purchase the paper. I was mentioning it to Denise and before finishing my sentence, she blurted out “LET’S BUY IT!”
Don’t you think it’s pretty risky to purchase a print newspaper?
D/J: Yes, we recognize that subscriptions are dropping, printing and postage prices are rising, and interest in print media is waning. In fact, when we were in the process of purchasing NikkeiWest, we learned that two community newspapers in Hawaii had to shut down. Despite this, our desire is to continue to provide our parents’ generation with the paper they have enjoyed for the last 32 years. We have realized that they have come to rely on it as a vital connection between them and their community. Denise chuckles and says, “I just got a phone call from someone who was concerned when the paper hadn’t arrived when they had expected. Someone also commented that she wanted to make sure we kept the obituaries!”
D/J: We hope to keep the subscription prices at the same rate even though we are paying 25% difference out of pocket. This means that we are paying more to print the paper than what we’re receiving from our subscribers. We are just trying to make the transition as seamless as possible.
Now that we own the paper through our nonprofit NikkeiWest Foundation, we can accept donations and sponsorships. We see the need to be creative in generating revenue in various ways such as running graduation ads.
At the same time, being a nonprofit, we’re excited to be able to award scholarships, and other monetary awards.
Without making a profit, how will you pay your staff?
D/J: Contrary to people’s belief, the paper didn’t come with a staff. We are the editors, journalists, marketing representatives, publishers, photographers, and so on. Our hope is to eventually be a community-run paper, with people volunteering to serve in some of these capacities.
That sounds great, but how do you think you can accomplish this?
D/J: We hope with our wide network of connections, many will be willing to help. We announced that we are the new owners with a NikkeiWest booth at the Nikkei Matsuri in San Jose Japantown in late April. The support was overwhelming! We had some people eager to be involved, we received many donations on the spot, friends subscribed, and current subscribers commented that they like the direction it’s going. It was very encouraging!
Why did you wait until now to formally announce yourselves as the owners?
D/J: We felt we would get very overwhelmed with inquiring minds needing to know details while we were trying to get the lay of the land.
First, we had to understand the process of how to run a newspaper. Secondly, we had to focus our efforts on setting it up as a non-profit and gathering content!
How do you gather content?
D/J: We receive press releases on various topics and try to expand on them. We subscribe to many newsletters, rely on social media groups and reach out if we get a lead on a topic that will interest our readers or about which we are passionate.
What are you particularly passionate about?
D/J: Our hope is to be able to help in anyway to keep our 3 last remaining Japantowns visible and viable! A lot goes on within the community and we are open to spread awareness, encourage involvement and bring the communties together and support one another.
Keeping the internment camp history accessible is very important to us. Both our parents were incarcerated and the last of the survivors are diminishing, so it’s scary to think that the history won’t be passed on. It’s really the next generation who needs to preserve the Japanese traditions, culture and history.
Clearly running and owning a newspaper is a daunting endeavor. What motivates you to keep going?
D/J: We see the rewards reaped when multiple generations of Japanese Americans can make meaningful connections through printed media. Recently, a gonsei (5th generation Japanese American) sent us this heartfelt comment:
“That’s quite an impressive endeavor, to take over a newspaper. And I think it’s very admirable to do so for the community.”
Having already submitted artwork for the paper, he commented that he is excited to continue the collaboration. He’s only one of a number of young people wanting to contribute to the future of the paper.
Initially we just wanted to keep the paper going for our parents’ generation, but now we have shifted our approach from, “let’s keep it going for our legacy subscribers,” to “let’s try to highlight and encourage the next generation to continue this on for the future.”
Will you go digital?
D/J: Not right now. We are still focusing on gathering content, especially from other Northern California areas. We have subscribers in 145 cities. We hope to connect with those communities and work together to keep this newspaper informative as well as interesting and relevant. Hopefully a physical paper delivered to the home will pique interests with multiple generations. We do have a brand new website with basic information and will keep building upon that.
How is your paper different from other Japanese American newspapers?
D/J: Being a local newspaper, we focus on unique, human interest stories from the Northern California area. We also strive to highlight issues which are not covered by mainstream media outlets.
How has the experience been so far?
D/J: It’s been challenging, overwhelming, frustrating and at the same time, positive and rewarding. We have interacted with many people and created wonderful working relationships. We’ve been approached for collaborations which we are looking forward to. It’s been fun to realize how people are connected.
Is there anything else you would like to say to your readers?
D/J: We’re excited to see how this passion project will grow and develop. We feel privileged to be able to serve our community in this fashion and hope you will support us by joining us in this endeavor.
Ways to help Nikkei West Foundation:
Visit www.nikkeiwest.org for information on how to subscribe, give a gift subscription, how to place an advertisement.
DONATE to our GO FUND ME page under NikkeiWest Foundation
We are welcoming submissions for articles for consideration that are Nikkei related within the Northern California areas. These include, but not limited to personal stories, event coverages, fiction, enterainment, history, academic work, and interviews.
