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| Hawaiʻi’s Paper | |
_of_the_Honolulu_Advertiser_(2010).svg) | |
| Type | Dailynewspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Broadsheet |
| Owner | Black Press |
| Founded | 1856 (as thePacific Commercial Advertiser) |
| Ceased publication | June 6, 2010 (Merged intoHonolulu Star-Advertiser) |
| Headquarters | 605 Kapiʻolani Blvd. Honolulu,Hawaii 96813 United States |
| Circulation | 141,934 Morning 155,932 Sunday (as of 2007)[1] |
| ISSN | 1072-7191 |
| OCLC number | 8807414 |
| Website | honoluluadvertiser.com |
The Honolulu Advertiser was a dailynewspaper published inHonolulu, Hawaii. At the time publication ceased on June 6, 2010, it was the largest dailynewspaper inHawaii. It published daily with special Sunday andInternet editions.
The Honolulu Advertiser was the parent publisher ofIsland Weekly,Navy News,Army Weekly,Ka Nupepa People,West Oahu People,Leeward People,East Oahu People,Windward People,Metro Honolulu People, andHonolulu People small, community-based newspapers for the public.
The Honolulu Advertiser has had a succession of owners since it began publishing in 1856 under the name thePacific Commercial Advertiser. On February 25, 2010,Black Press, which owned theHonolulu Star-Bulletin, purchasedThe Honolulu Advertiser fromGannett Pacific Corporation, which acquired theAdvertiser in 1992 after it had sold theStar-Bulletin to another publisher that later sold it to Black Press in 2000. On May 3, 2010, a new company set up by Black Press, HA Management, took over operations of theAdvertiser and merged it with theStar-Bulletin on June 7, 2010, to form theHonolulu Star-Advertiser.
Businessman and son ofCongregational missionaries, Henry M. Whitney founded thePacific Commercial Advertiser in 1856, a weekly newspaper that was circulated primarily in thewhaling port of Honolulu. The inaugural edition was published on July 2 of that year with this statement from Whitney:
Thank Heaven, the day at length has dawned when the Hawaiian nation can boast a free press, untrammeled by government patronage or party pledges, unbiased by ministerial frowns or favors.[2]
The new publication had four pages with five columns, and a clear division into thematic sections. The last page was inHawaiian and titledKa Hoku Loa Hawaii (The Morning Star of Hawaii). The first issue ofPCA, as the weekly was quickly nicknamed, had a print run of 600 copies and was produced on a hand press.[3]
The biggest story in the first edition was a report on the wedding ofKamehameha IV andQueen Emma. However, the front page was devoted almost exclusively toadvertisements. Throughout the paper, Whitney posted fifty-two advertisements for sailing ships in port at Honolulu Harbor with three hundred vessel timetables. In 1870, Whitney went broke and was forced to sell theCommercial Advertiser to James Black and William Auld, local printers. Whitney stayed on as the newspaper's editor.
In 1880, Black and Auld sold thePacific Commercial Advertiser to cabinet ministerWalter M. Gibson, who was generally under financial control ofClaus Spreckels.[4]John Edward Bush, who was minister of the interior at the time, arranged for a government loan, and a guarantee of all government printing contracts.[5]: 221 Vehemently opposed to Spreckels's conservative and pro-monarchy political stance, Whitney, as a devout annexationist, resigned as editor. In his place,Wallace Rider Farrington, futureGovernor of theTerritory of Hawaii, arrived fromMaine to become the new editor. Spreckels's royalist slant in his editorial articles were deplored by many of the American businessmen residing in Hawaiʻi at the time. Revenue suffered as a result, forcing Spreckels to eventually sell thePacific Commercial Advertiser.
In 1888, Spreckels sold his newspaper to the Hawaiian Gazette Company. It in turn sold the newspaper in 1898 toLorrin A. Thurston. Thurston was organizer of theHawaiian League, which had forcedKing Kalākaua to agree to the "Bayonet Constitution" of 1887 backed by theHonolulu Rifles armedmilitia, and make Thurston a cabinet minister. The 1887 constitution stripped the monarchy of most authority, took away many rights ofnative Hawaiians to vote in elections, and granted voting rights to American residents, even those who did not have citizenship in the kingdom. Thurston had been instrumental to the overthrow of the monarchy and the end of the existence of theKingdom of Hawaiʻi.
In 1921, Thurston changed the name of thePacific Commercial Advertiser toThe Honolulu Advertiser. The following year, Thurston hired Raymond S. Coll to be the newspaper editor. Coll served in that capacity until his retirement in 1959.
In 1931, Lorrin P. Thurston took over his father's position as editor and president ofThe Honolulu Advertiser. He would later become chairman of the Hawaii Statehood Commission. Upon Raymond Coll's retirement, Thurston hired George Chaplin, former editor of the military newspaperPacific Stars and Stripes, as the editor ofThe Honolulu Advertiser. He would serve in this capacity for 28 years.
In 1961,Thurston Twigg-Smith continued family ownership as he inheritedThe Honolulu Advertiser from his uncle. He remained publisher and president until 1986. With the coupling of Chaplin and Twigg-Smith,The Honolulu Advertiser shifted its political slant from a staunchlyconservative pro-Big Five newspaper to become a more moderate, racially progressive newspaper. Both were enormously influenced by the rising localChinese American,Filipino American andJapanese American readership and worked to cater to these communities' news interests. In 1967, Twigg-Smith formed the Persis Corporation (known as Asa Hawaii Corporation until 1978) as theAdvertiser's parent company.
In 1992,The Honolulu Advertiser was purchased by the Gannett Pacific Corporation, a subsidiary of Gannett Company Incorporated.[6] It became the first morning edition publication in Gannett's corporate history. The company had already owned Honolulu's other major newspaper, theHonolulu Star-Bulletin, since 1973. From 1962 to 2001, both dueling newspapers were administered under ajoint operating agreement under which they shared printing and advertising operations but kept separate editorial staff and printing functions. The agreement ended when theHonolulu Star-Bulletin was sold to a separate company.
On February 25, 2010,Black Press, which owned theHonolulu Star-Bulletin, purchasedThe Honolulu Advertiser. As part of the deal to acquire theAdvertiser, Black Press agreed to place theStar-Bulletin on the selling block. If no buyer came forward by March 29, 2010, Black Press started making preparations to operate both papers through a transitional management team and then combine the two dailies into one.
On March 30, 2010, three parties came forward with offers to buy theStar-Bulletin, but a month later on April 27, 2010, the bids were rejected because their bids for theStar-Bulletin was below the minimum liquidation price. Black Press canceled the sale as a result and proceeded with transition plans, which came on the same day that they were approved to take over theAdvertiser by the Department of Justice.[7][8]
On May 3, 2010, a new company set up by Black Press, HA Management, took over the operations of the paper while Black Press continued overseeing the Star-Bulletin during a 30- to 60-day transition period, in which both papers merged into one daily,The Honolulu Star-Advertiser. TheAdvertiser published its final edition at 12:01 AM on June 6, 2010,[9][10][11] and Black Press officially launched theHonolulu Star-Advertiser as a broadsheet morning daily on June 7, 2010.
The newspaper will be based out of the formerStar-Bulletin offices at Restaurant Row and published at the formerAdvertiser printing facilities in Kapolei. A total of 474 staffers are employed at the daily, 265 from theAdvertiser and 209 fromStar-Bulletin. The fonts still use the "Star-Bulletin" masthead but with "Advertiser" replacing the "Bulletin" name.
The Honolulu Advertiser staff occupied the Advertiser Building on 605 Kapiʻolani Boulevard indowntown Honolulu up until its last day of business on June 4, 2010, and the final pressing of its June 6, 2010, issue. It was built in 1929 by the architectural firm Emory & Webb in thebeaux arts style. From the 1930s through the 1950s the building's roof sported two radio towers with the transmitting antenna ofAM radio station KGU strung between them.
Although Gannett sold the Advertiser in May 2010, the building that housed the newspaper was not immediately offered for sale as it was expected to be sold to a different party in the future. Employees and staff moved over to the "Star-Advertiser" offices at Restaurant Row and to the Kapolei facility, leaving the building vacant except for a small crew to remove most of the equipment and items in preparation for its sale.
The Advertiser Building has been used as a soundstage and housed small studios forHawaii Five-0.