More Reporter Hosts join Peer News

I’m happy to report that we’ve now hired the editorial team that will launch our new news service for Honolulu and Hawaii. I’ll be talking about our approach publicly for the first time at a speech in Honolulu later this week at a conference called Newsmorphosis.

I stress in my headline that these journalists will be hosts as well as reporters because the community will interact with them in a way that’s not typical of the relationship between reporters and their readers. A big part of Peer News is going to be community, and the reporter hosts will be key in making that happen.

Along with Assistant Editor Sara Lin and reporters Chad Blair, Noelle Chun and Katherine Poythress, the reporter hosts at Peer News will include (in alphabetical order):

Mike Levine, currently a reporter and assistant news editor at The Garden Island newspaper on Kauai. Mike has worked as a journalist on Kauai for a couple of years, after picking lettuce and acting as a tour guide there. He also worked for Fodor’s to update the Kauai section of the 2010 Hawaii Guidebook and Kauai Guidebook 3rd Edition. Mike worked as a news desk editor and writer at NBA.com before moving to Kauai. He’s a graduate of Lehigh University and the rare reporter to have majored in journalism and minored in material science and engineering.

Katherine Nichols, currently a staff writer for the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. Katherine approaches journalism with the drive and determination of the triathlete that she is. The 16-year resident of Hawaii has experience as a reporter for both Honolulu papers, and served as the Hawaii bureau chief for Travel Weekly Magazine. She has written freelance articles for publications ranging from The New York Times Magazine and The San Francisco Chronicle Magazine to People Magazine and Honolulu Magazine. She wrote, produced and hosted a local television show, and has written and produced programming for ESPN. Katherine attended UCLA, where she earned a degree in English Literature and a master's in education.

Treena Shapiro, currently the assistant features editor at The Honolulu Advertiser. Treena was born in Honolulu and grew up on the Big Island and in Virginia and California before returning to Oahu as a teen-ager. She’s a graduate of Kailua High School and the University of Hawaii/Manoa. Treena had an extensive career as a public affairs reporter before she made the switch to editing in 2008. She was a general assignment and education reporter for the Honolulu Star-Bulletin before moving to the Advertiser, where she covered City Hall, education, the legislature and state government. Treena was an early adopter of new approaches to journalism. She shoots video on stories and has written a blog for the Advertiser.