Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 29, Number 4, 1 April 2012 — O&A: John Aeto & Scott Schumaker on their forthcoming Mana Magazine [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

O&A: John Aeto & Scott Schumaker on their forthcoming Mana Magazine

lnterviewed by Mary Aliee Milham // I I e aupuni palapala I I ko'u" - Mine shall be a naūon I I ofliteracy. I I When King Kamehameha III made this famous deelaration in the 1820s, it was as if he'd given the Hawaiian people a propheey. Within two generations, Hawai'i, as far as we know, was indeed the most literate nation on Earth. Come May, Hawai'i's legaey of literaey will spread even further with the launeh of MANA, a bimonthly magazine for Native Hawaiians and those who eare about the Hawaiian eommunity, not just in Hawai'i but throughout the world. MANA will be published by Mana Media LLC, a jointly owned subsidiary of The Kālaimoku Group - a Native Hawaiian-owned business development firm eo-founded by John Aeto and Cedrie Duarte - and PaeifieBasin Communications. PacificBasin is Hawai'i's largest, locally owned media company and the publisher of 1 1 magazines, including its flagship Honoluhi Magazine, whose predecessor was commissioned by royal charter by King Kalākaua, in 1888. Ka Wai Ola connected with MANA co-publishers Scott Schumaker, of PacificBasin, and John Aeto, of The Kālaimoku Group, to learn more about MANA and what the Native Hawaiian community ean expect from it. To subscribe to MANA Magazine (a one-year subscription costs $30) and its free newsletter, visit mymanamagazine. eom. KWO: How did the idea for MANA Magazine eome about? John Aeto: I think it happened

over time. ... The radio stations that I worked with always served the Hawaiian community. So our last radio adventure, we were trying to connect all the Hawaiian Islands with radio stations and we were

creating radio shows that could be heard from Hilo to Hanalei. And the thought process was connecting the Hawaiian people with information, music, entertainment that was available for everyone to access. Then I started subscribing to the New Zealand magazine called Mana and I thought it was a pretty interesting magazine. And you know, when you look back on the Hawaiian community, so mueh of what we've done in the last 25 years, we went to the Māoris. We went to the Māoris for language (revival). When I looked at what the Māoris were doing on the radio side, they have a large Māori radio network of 35 stations. They're all broadcast in Māori. . . . And so, along the lines of thinking about media and radio, I started thinking, 'How do we connect our people?' The big light eame on when OHA actually published some of the results of the 2010 Census. And when we saw that almost half of the Hawaiian people are outside of the State of Hawai'i, I then knew that we needed to take a different approach to connect everyone. We couldn't buy radio stations all across the U.S. continent. It had to be a different type of media. So I started gravitating towards a direct-mail pieee that

later heeame a magazine. KWO: Why do you feel this magazine is needed? Scott Schumaker: We believe very strongly in the power of journalism when it's done right; that when journalism sheds a light on some issue, then it ean help solve problems. It ean help inspire discussion. It ean help bring a community together to discuss issues that are important within that community. We very mueh want MANA Magazine to do that for the Hawaiian community. MANA Magazine is a generalinterest, consumer magazine on kind of the broadest level. . . . But every story that we cover will be put through the Hawaiian lens. . . . We don't want it to be the voice of the Hawaiian community ...What we're trying to do is inspire the voices of the Hawaiian eommunity to gather in MANA as a kind of a meeting plaee and everybody have an opportunity to share their opinions.

KWO: How impoi lanl was it for you that MA KA have an independent voice? Schumaker: The whole foundation in the creation of MANA was on its independence, and we believe that in order to inspire all voices to participate that we need to be independent of any one viewpoint or any one organization. . . . It ensures the editorial integrity that we need to cover the stories and to do so without undue inAuenee from any one organization. KWO: Your liming for launehing MANA seems in sync wilh the energy building toward Hawaiian independence. Is there a solid eonneehon with that? Scott Schumaker: Absolutely. We very mueh believe that this is the right time for the Hawaiian community because of all these efforts taking plaee, because of the (Native Hawaiian) roll (commission), because of Act 195 (granting state recognition for Native Hawaiians), because of the (pending) ceded-land (settlement). ... It's just a wonderful time and so mueh energy kind of moving toward real significant change taking plaee in the Hawaiian community. KWO: How will MANA reach out to Hawaiians living outside

Hawai'i? Scott Schumaker: One of the things we are doing is working with some of the Hawaiian organizations and the very first one we're working with is the Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs. . . . We're going to be sharing with the civic clubs 50 percent of the subscription revenue that they get by selling subscriptions. ... So it's a way of using clubs, both on the continent as well as here in Hawai'i, to help themraise money. . . . Obviously, the more subscribers we have, the better we ean serve our advertisers, the better we ean serve the Hawaiian community. KWO: What does it mean to you as a Native Hawaiian to be launching this magazine? John Aeto: I'm very excited, because as a Hawaiian and a graduate of Kamehameha it was always instilled in us to be industrious men and women and to be able give back to our community and I feel like one of the ways that I ean give back is through media . . . being able to communicate what's going on in our community to everyone. ■ Mary Aliee Kaiuīani Miīham, a Portīand, Oregon-based freeīance journalist, is a former nev,'spaper reporter and columnist from California's Central Coast.

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