154-year-old Honolulu Advertiser Prints Last Issue

By AUDREY McAVOY (AP)

HONOLULU — For more than a century, the Honolulu Star-Bulletin and The Honolulu Advertiser have competed to chronicle Hawaii, from the overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy and the Pearl Harbor attack to statehood and the election of island-born Barack Obama.

That rivalry ends Sunday when the Advertiser, Hawaii's largest newspaper, publishes its last edition after being bought out and combined with its smaller rival. More than 400 reporters, pressmen and other workers are losing their jobs.

The Advertiser is the latest casualty of the recession and the upheaval that the Internet has unleashed on the traditional media industry. Honolulu now joins Denver and Seattle among the cities served by only one daily newspaper and a shrinking pool of professional journalists.

Honolulu Star-Advertiser to debut June 7

Hawaii's two largest newspapers -- the Honolulu Star-Bulletin and The Honolulu Advertiser -- will publish separately for the last time June 6.

Star-Bulletin Publisher Dennis Francis says the newspapers will then merge June 7 to form the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.

The owner of the Star-Bulletin, Oahu Publications Inc., has purchased the larger Advertiser from Gannett Co.

Francis says the merger means about one-third of the Star-Bulletin's 300 employees and about half of the Advertiser's staff of 580 will lose their jobs.

He says under union contracts, Star-Bulletin members of the Hawaii Newspaper Guild will retain their newsroom jobs.

Francis says he expects the size of the Star-Advertiser newsroom to be between 75 and 120 workers.

Honolulu Star Bulletin to Acquire Honolulu Advertiser

The Justice Department has given Honolulu Star Bulletin owner David Black permission to purchase the Honolulu Advertiser from Gannett Company.  Black intends to consolidate the two publications, and create a new daily called the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.  The sale is expected to be completed on Sunday, May 2nd.  A timeline for the consolidation of the two publications has yet to be announced.