Spectrum News Hawaiʻi, a regional digital and streaming news platform managed by Charter Communications, has laid off “a few” positions, Spectrum Networks told Aloha State Daily Thursday by email.
The Hawaiʻi news division launched in fall of 2021 with six local journalists, among other nationwide staff, to cover “hyper-local” community news, politics, sports, weather, and more, per its website. A quick glance at its site today shows the most recent story about the Islands went up two days ago.
ASD also confirmed Thursday that Spectrum/Charter Communications was not required to file any WARN notices in Hawaiʻi for recent layoffs at its local newsroom and corporate offices. In total, the company employs approximately 1,000 staff members in Hawai‘i.
On Wednesday, Spectrum News Hawaiʻi Digital Journalist Brian McInnis took to X to share a post reflecting on a near 20-year career reporting on sports and other happenings in the Islands.
“My 5-year team at Spectrum News was sadly recently eliminated,” McInnis wrote in the X post. Heartfelt aloha and mahalo for reading. ... Here’s to what’s next.”
Prior to Spectrum News, McInnis worked at Pacific Business News and the Honolulu Star-Advertiser. He was recognized Wednesday night by the the Hawai‘i Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists for his coverage on the second anniversary of the August 2023 Lahaina wildfires, which garnered Spectrum News Hawaiʻi first place in Online News Reporting in the Internet division for 2025.
Over the years, the Spectrum News Hawaiʻi team — which locally includes McInnis along with executive producer Nuy Cho; digital producer Lianne Bidal Thompson; and digital reporters Michael Tsai, Sarah Yamanaka and Michelle Broder Van Dyke — has won multiple awards for their work.
A Spectrum spokesperson added that there are more updates coming on the news side. The company operates more than 30 physical and digital newsrooms across the country.
As for the Spectrum store near Mililani Tech Park and corporate offices in Mililani Town, less than 10 people were recently impacted, per the company.
“We’ve made some structural changes that streamlines our organization to be more effective and efficient. No customer facing roles have been impacted,” a Spectrum spokesperson said.
Charter Communications manages all operations and financial revenue for Spectrum News as “a single consolidated business segment under Spectrum Networks,” its website states.
According to a Yahoo finance article from earlier this month, Spectrum is currently battling “mounting customer losses in its cable TV and internet business” across the country following increased monthly prices for such services. In a first-quarter earnings report, Charter said that Spectrum Internet customers declined by 120,000 and it lost 60,000 video customers in Q1.
“As Charter works to reverse Spectrum's customer losses, it continues to cut jobs, with its latest round affecting hundreds of employees,” Yahoo finance reported at the time.
Charter Communications has recently issued WARN notices in Austin, Texas, and Town and Country, Missouri, resulting in the layoff of hundreds of Spectrum employees, according to other media outlets.
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Kelsey Kukaua Medeiros can be reached at kelsey@alohastatedaily.com.
