Гонолулу Advertiser: Гавайи газетінің тарихы

Daily newspaper in Honolulu, Hawaii

The Honolulu Advertiser was a daily newspaper published in Honolulu, Hawaii. At the time publication ceased on June 6, 2010, it was the largest daily newspaper in Hawaii. It published daily with special Sunday and Internet editions. The Honolulu Advertiser was the parent publisher of Island Weekly, Navy News, Army Weekly, Ka Nupepa People, West Oahu People, Leeward People, East Oahu People, Windward People, Metro Honolulu People, and Honolulu People small, community based newspapers for the public. The Honolulu Advertiser has had a succession of owners since it began publishing in 1856 under the name the Pacific Commercial Advertiser. On February 25, 2010, Black Press, which owned the Honolulu Star Bulletin, purchased The Honolulu Advertiser from Gannett Pacific Corporation, which acquired the Advertiser in 1992 after it had sold the Star Bulletin to another publisher that later sold it to Black Press in 2000. On May 3, 2010, a new company set up by Black Press, HA Management, took over operations of the Advertiser and merged it with the Star Bulletin on June 7, 2010, to form the Honolulu Star Advertiser.

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 this statement 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 biggest story in the first edition was a report on 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 went broke and was forced to sell the Commercial Advertiser to James Black and William Auld, local printers. Whitney stayed on as the newspaper's editor.

In 1880, Black and Auld sold the Pacific Commercial Advertiser to cabinet minister Walter M. Gibson, who was generally under financial control of Claus Spreckels. John Edward Bush, who was minister of the interior at the time, arranged for a government loan, and a guarantee of all government printing contracts. Vehemently opposed to Spreckels's conservative and pro monarchy political stance, Whitney, as a devout annexationist, resigned as editor. In his place, Wallace Rider Farrington, future Governor of the Territory of Hawaii, arrived from Maine to become the new editor. Spreckels's royalist slant in his editorial articles were deplored by many of the American businessmen residing in Hawaii at the time. Revenue suffered as a result, forcing Spreckels to eventually sell the Pacific Commercial Advertiser.

In 1888, Spreckels sold his newspaper to the Hawaiian Gazette Company. It in turn sold the newspaper in 1898 to Lorrin A. Thurston. Thurston was organizer of the Hawaiian League, which had forced King Kalākaua to agree to the "Bayonet Constitution" of 1887 backed by the Honolulu Rifles armed militia, and make Thurston a cabinet minister. The 1887 constitution stripped the monarchy of most authority, took away many rights of native Hawaiians to vote in elections, and granted voting rights to American residents, even those who did not have citizenship in the kingdom. Thurston had been instrumental to the overthrow of the monarchy and the end of the existence of the Kingdom of Hawaii. In 1921, Thurston changed the name of the Pacific Commercial Advertiser to The Honolulu Advertiser. The following year, Thurston hired Raymond S. Coll to be the newspaper editor. Coll served in that capacity until his retirement in 1959. In 1931, Lorrin P. Thurston took over his father's position as editor and president of The Honolulu Advertiser. He would later become chairman of the Hawaii Statehood Commission. Upon Raymond Coll's retirement, Thurston hired George Chaplin, former editor of the military newspaper Pacific Stars and Stripes, as the editor of The Honolulu Advertiser. He would serve in this capacity for 28 years.