Three promoted in Advertiser newsroom

Advertiser Staff

The Honolulu Advertiser has announced three news executive promotions effective today.

Mark Platte

Marsha McFadden

Sandra Oshiro

"The conversations leading up to these promotions have been an exciting reminder of the strong talent pool in our newsroom," said Advertiser Editor Saundra Keyes in announcing the appointments.

Platte joined The Advertiser in 2000 as assistant managing editor for news and has directed much of the newspaper's enterprise and investigative reporting. He previously had worked as a reporter and editor at the Los Angeles Times. He also has been a reporter at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Miami Herald and The Orange County Register. He earned a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of South Carolina.

McFadden joined The Advertiser in 1997 as an assistant city editor and was named city editor in 2000. She previously had worked as a reporter, copy editor and supervising editor at the San Antonio Express-News, The Monterey County Herald and the Clovis News Journal. She earned her bachelor's degree in history at Baptist College in Charleston, S.C., and did graduate study in English at Eastern New Mexico University. During the 1994-95 academic year, she was a John S. Knight Fellow at Stanford University.

Oshiro, a 27-year veteran of The Advertiser, has been business editor since 2002. In earlier assignments, she was responsible for the startup of honoluluadvertiser.com and had been a business reporter, assistant city editor, editorial writer and computer-assisted reporting specialist. She is a graduate of Farrington High School, the University of Hawai'i, and Columbia University, where she earned a master's degree in journalism. She is a founding member of the Hawai'i chapter of the Asian American Journalists Association and recipient of a Fulbright Journalism Fellowship in Japan.

The three will join Keyes and Managing Editor David Montesino in oversight of new content to be introduced later this year. Montesino will lead the newsroom's transition to printing at The Advertiser's new $83 million plant in Kapolei. The newspaper will be redesigned to showcase the high-quality printing and color capabilities of the Regioman offset presses that are scheduled to start rolling this summer.

In Platte's promotion to executive editor, he replaces Jim Kelly, who left The Advertiser earlier this month to become an assistant managing editor at The Fresno Bee.