If you watch “Sunrise” on Hawaii News Now and see Chad Blair sitting on the couch, don’t faint.

Civil Beat and Hawaii News Now are now media partners in a venture that will certainly extend the reach and impact of our journalism and help the state’s largest TV news operation bolster its in-depth and investigative reporting.

We’ve enjoyed a great partnership with KITV since we launched in 2010, so jumping ship was a big decision. But HNN with its three broadcast stations and extensive digital reach was something we couldn’t refuse.

HNN has a 65-person award-winning news team that produces 41 hours of local broadcast news a week as well as long form broadcast and digital news specials and lifestyle programming. HNN also has the state’s largest reach on its digital platforms with an average of nearly 20 million page views a month and more than 1 million likes on Facebook.

Starting this Wednesday morning, you’ll see Chad (our charismatic politics and opinion editor) on “Sunrise” one day a week or another reporter or editor talking with the morning show crew about one of Civil Beat’s enterprise efforts. We’re calling that segment the Morning Beat.

We’ll also team up for political and issues polling, and on whatever election-season debates may be appropriate.

We plan to share content on our digital platforms too, so you’ll see some Civil Beat stories on HNN’s website and some of its news coverage on ours. We’re especially happy to take advantage of the amazing coverage of breaking news that HNN provides statewide.

In May we’ll be celebrating our 10th year of providing in-depth, investigative and watchdog journalism to Hawaii. We’ve grown considerably in that time, especially since becoming a nonprofit newsroom in 2016. We’re very grateful for the support we’ve received from an increasing number of grassroots donors as well as local and national foundations who have embraced our independent public affairs journalism.

Hawaii News Now was formed on Oct. 26, 2009 — bringing together CBS affiliate KGMB, NBC affiliate KHNL and independent station K5.

Today it is the state’s largest multimedia news organization operating 11 television stations as well as digital news products. Hawaii News Now is owned by Gray Television which is one of the nation’s largest media companies, operating in 93 markets across the country.

This is not a merger or consolidation. We will both continue to operate independent newsrooms, and Civil Beat still plans to grow as a local nonprofit news operation.

But teaming with Hawaii News Now will help in our efforts to get news and information that is important to Hawaii to as many people as possible. We’ve always believed that a strong media is vital to a strong democracy, and Hawaii News Now is a top-notch news outlet that shares that belief.