The Honolulu Advertiser's mission is to chronicle Hawai'i's story while being a vigilant partner in helping the Islands shape their future. To be diligent, truthful, accurate and fair. To provide a voice for all of the community. To reflect a love and understanding of this place and its people. To honor Hawai'i's ethnic, cultural and social diversity. To cherish the land and sea. To perpetuate the qualities of aloha — tolerance, humility, sharing and respect. To inform, educate and entertain. To be Hawai'i's newspaper.
The Honolulu Advertiser, Hawai'i's largest newspaper, has been telling the story of Hawai'i since the days of the monarchy.
The newspaper that became today's Honolulu Advertiser was founded in 1856 as the Pacific Commercial Advertiser, published originally just once a week. Its founder, Henry M. Whitney, son of members of the first company of missionaries to the Islands, had this to say in his July 2, 1856 inaugural edition:
"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."
The Advertiser goes daily
The Advertiser shifted to a daily publication after 26 years as a weekly.
Honolulu was then a sleepy little whaling port of 10,000 people. The big news in Whitney's first paper was the wedding of King Kamehameha IV. But most of the first page was devoted to advertising: 52 advertisements in all. The paper gave considerable attention to sailing ships that crowded Honolulu's harbor. The schedules of some 300 vessels were listed.
Whitney owned the paper until 1870, when, financially drained, he sold it to printers James Black and William Auld but remained as editor.
Ten years later, the paper was sold again and Whitney promptly quit. The new owner was the great sugar baron, Claus Spreckels, the man for whom Spreckelsville, Maui, is named. Whitney disagreed with much that Spreckels stood for and Spreckels was a Royalist.
The Pacific Commercial Advertiser's conservative position under Spreckels was not popular. In 1888, it was sold to the Hawaiian Gazette Company, whose secretary was Lorrin A. Thurston, a descendant of missionaries and a militant leader in Hawaiian affairs for more than half a century.
Thurston, born in Honolulu, became an attorney, a legislator and minister of the interior under King Kalakaua. He drafted a new constitution for the Kingdom of Hawai'i, adopted in 1887. After the overthrow of the monarchy, which Thurston helped lead, he served twice as Hawai'i's annexation commissioner in Washington.
Thurston purchased the Pacific Commercial Advertiser in 1895 and was its publisher until his death 36 years later.
A year before Thurston acquired The Advertiser, a young man had arrived from Maine to be its editor. His name was Wallace Rider Farrington. He left The Advertiser after three years and later gained prominence as the governor of Hawai'i.
Advertiser's name changes
Publisher Thurston officially changed his paper's name from the Pacific Commercial to The Honolulu Advertiser in 1921.
In 1922, a newspaperman from Pittsburgh stopped in Honolulu while on a trip around the world. He was Raymond S. Coll, and his stopover lasted for 37 years. A much-respected editor, he played a major part in moving Hawai'i from provincialism to internationalism, from a plantation-dominated territory to a modern state. He retired in 1959 at the age of 84.
In 1931, Lorrin P. Thurston succeeded his father as president and publisher of The Advertiser. He was active in civic affairs and a leader in Hawai'i's tourism industry. He served as chairman of Hawai'i's statehood commission.
His nephew, Thurston Twigg-Smith, became publisher in 1961 and president in 1962, positions he held until 1986.
George Chaplin, who had just come to The Advertiser, succeeded Coll as editor. Formerly editor of the New Orleans Item, Chaplin had seen Honolulu during World War II as editor of the Pacific Stars and Stripes. He attracted the attention of publisher Thurston in part through a series of pro-Hawai'i statehood editorials in the Item. Chaplin served as editor-in-chief at The Advertiser for 28 years.
Under Twigg-Smith and Chaplin, The Advertiser shifted in style and policy, moving the newspaper toward a more moderate and racially progressive style.
Upon Chaplin's retirement, he was succeeded by Executive Editor Buck Buckwach, who in turn handed the editor's reins to veteran city editor and political reporter Gerry Keir. Keir was succeeded by James Gatti, who joined The Advertiser in December 1995 after a 26-year career at the Detroit News. Gatti retired from The Advertiser in November 2000.
The Honolulu Advertiser today
The Honolulu Advertiser is Hawai'i's largest statewide daily and Sunday newspaper. Over seventy three percent of adults on O'ahu read the paper. The Sunday edition reaches more homes and readers than any other publication in Hawaii.
In addition to the print edition, The Advertiser publishes one of Hawai'i's premier Internet web sites, www.honoluluadvertiser.com. This dynamic site provides residents and visitors with critical up-to-date information the news and information regarding Hawai'i.
The Advertiser's customer publishing group produces a number of specialty publications serving varied readership audiences in Hawaii. Among those are Island Weekly, which is distributed to 170,000 residents of O'ahu weekly; Kaua‘i Island News, which reaches over 28,500 households on Kaua‘i; Navy News, the official US Pacific Navy military publication for Hawai'i; US Air Force Kukini and Hawaii Army Weekly. We are happy to work with groups to produce specialty publications that will serve our island readers interests.
Gannett Pacific, our parent corporation, also owns the weekly-classified publications Pennysaver and Buy & Sell on O'ahu. They publish three community-based publications on O'ahu as well. These include Ka Nupepa in Mililani, West O'ahu Current in the Kapolei and Ewa communities, and the Leeward Current in the Pearl City and the 'Aiea area.
In July 2004, The Advertiser began printing from its new $82 million dollar publishing plant located in Kapolei. This state-of-the-art printing facility provides high-speed quality color reproduction for clients. The Advertiser prints dozens of commercial advertising circulars for Hawai'i and many specialty publications including Pacific Business News.
Current leadership
Lee P. Webber is the current president and publisher of The Honolulu Advertiser. He was named to the post in August 2007, having served as publisher of the Gannett-owned Pacific Daily News on Guam. He worked at the Pacific Daily News for 37 years and had been publisher since 1983. He served as a Navy corpsman during the Vietnam War and then finished his final two years at the U.S. Naval Hospital in Guam before joining the Pacific Daily News.
Webber succeeded Michael J. Fisch as publisher of The Advertiser. Fisch was named to the same position at the Journal News in Westchester County, N.Y., also a Gannett newspaper.
Mark Platte is The Advertiser's editor today. Platte joined The Advertiser in 2000 and became its managing editor in 2004. Before that, he served as an editor and reporter at the Los Angeles Times for more than a decade. A native of Queens, N.Y., Platte also has worked at The Orange County Register, The Miami Herald and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He is a graduate of the University of South Carolina.
Other relevant history
Gannett Corporation originally entered the Hawai'i market when they purchased the evening Honolulu Star-Bulletin in 1973. Gannett became the majority partner in the then-existing joint operating agency that published the Star-Bulletin and The Advertiser under separate ownership, but a common publishing company called the Hawaii Newspaper Agency.
In 1992, Persis Corporation, then owner of The Advertiser, decided to exit the publishing business and put The Advertiser up for sale. Gannett, desiring to be in the morning field, decided to purchase The Advertiser and its interest in the joint operating company and to sell the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, an evening newspaper with declining circulation.
In March 2001 the joint operating agreement and the Hawaii Newspaper Agency were dissolved and The Honolulu Advertiser and the Star-Bulletin separated their business relationship and began publishing separately.
The Advertiser continues to be the leading daily and Sunday newspaper of Hawai'i. It is the only daily newspaper on O'ahu which has its circulation verified and audited independently by the Audit Bureau of Circulations.