Posted on: Saturday, January 8, 2005

Advertiser to publish last PM edition Friday

Advertiser Staff

The Honolulu Advertiser will stop publishing its PM edition effective Friday, Publisher Michael J. Fisch announced yesterday. He said subscribers of the afternoon edition, launched in 2001, will receive the morning Advertiser.

"Our PM edition staff has done an outstanding job winning new readers for The Advertiser," Fisch said. "We believe the majority of those readers have come to enjoy our content and will welcome it in the morning along with the constant updates available on our Web site."

Fisch said resources devoted to the PM edition will be shifted to the morning Advertiser, to honoluluadvertiser.com and to current and planned products serving specialized audiences.

He said The Advertiser had developed its PM edition because "even though afternoon newspaper readership is a declining habit, both nationally and in Hawai'i, we wanted the opportunity to give a new audience a look at our journalism." That opportunity came in 2001 with the end of a Joint Operating Agreement that required printing of the afternoon Honolulu Star-Bulletin on the same presses that printed the morning Advertiser.

"For the first time, we were able to share what we do with readers who were accustomed to the afternoon cycle," Fisch said. "Many of them found, once they became familiar with The Advertiser, that they like our approach to the news."

With increasing reliance on the Internet for timely stock market information, once a staple of afternoon newspaper editions, Fisch said it is logical to shift resources to The Advertiser's growing strength in online and specialized publications, and to its long-standing strength in morning publication.

"We're sending letters to all of our PM readers explaining the change," Fisch said. "We value their loyalty and want to reward it with excellent content and delivery service."

The Honolulu Advertiser is Hawai'i's largest daily newspaper. In addition to The Advertiser, the newspaper company also publishes Buy and Sell Automotive Shopper, The Pennysaver, Career Builder Weekly, Homes Weekly, Island Weekly, Windward People, KaNupepa, Leeward Current, West Oahu Current and the Kauai Island News. The Honolulu Advertiser also is the official military newspaper publisher for The Army News, The Navy News and The Hickam Kukini.