Honolulu Advertiser
The Honolulu Advertiser is the largest newspaper in the state of Hawaii and one of the largest newspapers in the United States. It publishes daily with special Sunday and internet editions. Owned by Gannett Pacific Corporation since 1992, the Honolulu Advertiser is the parent publisher of Island Weekly, Navy News, Army Weekly, Ka Nupepa, West Oahu Current, Leeward Current community-based newspapers.
Honolulu businessman and son of Congregational missionaries Henry M. Whitney founded the Pacific Commercial Advertiser in 1856, a weekly newspaper that was circulated primarily in the whaling port of Honolulu. The inaugural edition was published on July 2 of that year with a quote 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." The most important story in the first edition was a report of the wedding of Kamehameha IV and Queen Emma. However, the front page was devoted almost exclusively to advertisements. Throughout the paper, Whitney posted fifty-two advertisements for sailing ships in port at Honolulu Harbor with three hundred vessel timetables. In 1870, Whitney became broke and was forced to sell the Pacific Commercial Advertiser to James Black and William Auld, local printers. Whitney remained as the editor.
The first special edition newspaper of the attacks on September 11, 2001, to be archived at the Library of Congress was that of the Honolulu Advertiser
In 1880, Black and Auld sold the Pacific Commercial Advertiser to Claus Spreckles. Vehemently opposed to Spreckles' conservative pro-monarchy political stance, Whitney the devout annexationist resigned as editor. Wallace Rider Farrington, future Governor of the Territory of Hawaii arrived from Maine to become the new editor. Spreckles' royalist slants in his newspaper articles were deplored by most American businessmen residing in Hawaii. Business suffered as a result forcing Spreckles to sell the Pacific Commercial Advertiser.
In 1888, Spreckles sold his newspaper to the Hawaiian Gazette Company. It in turn sold the newspaper in 1895 to Lorrin A. Thurston, a cabinet minister in the administration of David Kalakaua. Thurston would later become the architect of the overthrow of the monarchy and end the existence of the Kingdom of Hawaii. He was the author of the infamous Bayonet Constitution of 1887 which he and an armed militia forced Kalakaua to sign at gunpoint with a bayonet at his throat. The constitution stripped the monarchy of its authority, took away the right of native Hawaiians to vote in their own elections while voting rights were granted to Americans who did not have legal Hawaiian citizenship.
In 1921, Thurston changed the name of the Pacific Commercial Advertiser to become the Honolulu Advertiser. The following year, Thurston hired Raymond S. Coll to be the newspaper's new editor. He served in that capacity until his retirement in 1959.
In 1931, Lorrin P. Thurston took over from his father as editor and president of the Honolulu Advertiser. He would later become chairman of the Hawaii Statehood Commission. Upon the retirement of Coll, Thurston hired George Chaplin, former editor of the World War II military newspaper Pacific Stars and Stripes, to become the Honolulu Advertiser's new editor. He would serve as editor for 28 years.
In 1961, Thurston Twigg-Smith continued family ownership as he inherited the 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 staunchly conservative pro-Big Five newspaper to become a more moderate, racially progressive newspaper. Both were enormously influenced by the rising local Chinese American, Filipino American and Japanese American readership and worked to cater to these communities' news interests. In 1986, Twigg-Smith sold the newspaper to Persis Corporation and retired.
In June 2004, the Honolulu Advertiser opened its multi-million dollar printing facility in Kapolei, a West Oahu suburb of Honolulu
In 1992, the Honolulu Advertiser was purchased by the Gannett Pacific Corporation, a subsidiary of Gannet Company Incorporated. It became Gannett's first morning edition publication in its corporate history. The company had already owned the other major newspaper Honolulu Star-Bulletin since 1973. From 1962 to 2001, both dueling newspapers were administered under a joint operating agreement under which they shared printing and advertising operations but kept separate editorial staff and printing functions. The agreement ended when the Honolulu Star-Bulletin was sold to a separate company.
The Honolulu Advertiser staff occupies the Advertiser Building on 605 Kapiolani Boulevard in downtown Honolulu. Built in 1929 by the architectural firm Emory & Webb in the beaux arts style, the Advertiser Building is a National Historic Landmark and listed on the National Register of Historic Places.Henry M. Whitney
Claus Spreckles
Lorrin A. Thurston and Son
Thurston Twigg-Smith and George Chaplin
Gannett Pacific Corporation
Advertiser Building