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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Saturday, June 5, 2010

After 154 years, The Honolulu Advertiser's last day unfolds


By Dan Nakaso
Advertiser Staff Writer

Food, memories and good wishes continued to pour into The Advertiser newsroom today as the staff prepared to put the state's largest newspaper "to bed" for the final time.

Reporters, editors and photographers continued to dump notebooks, reports, books and business cards, uncovering desktops that had not been uncluttered in years.

And former staffers straggled in to witness the end of The Advertiser after 154 years of publishing.

Long-time readers continued to call into the newsroom, still unable to comprehend what was happening following the sale by The Advertiser's owner, Gannett Corp. Inc. to David Black, the owner of the rival Star-Bulletin.

Black has hired 28 Advertiser journalists and will produce a new broadsheet newspaper starting Monday under the name Honolulu Star-Advertiser.

But today, the mood in The Advertiser was more reflective as one of the last newspaper wars in America came to an end.

As is typical of weekends at the paper, a skeleton crew is on duty today. They will cover today's news, post the last items on the website, write the final stories. Tonight, the presses in Kapolei will roll and tomorrow you'll read the result of all that labor — and love — the last Honolulu Advertiser.

In a much-appreciated gesture, Star-Bulletin photographer Craig Kojima just stopped by the newsroom to wish us well.

Staffers cleared out desks and storage areas, uncovering everything from typewriter ribbons from days gone way past to rubber stamps bearing the names of past staffers. Other newsroom employees downloaded phone lists from their work computers and just came by to share a story about their life at the newspaper. Computer technicians hauled away computers to the new office, leaving dust bunnies the size of Texas on desks. And Advertiser managing editor for digital media Sandee Oshiro worked tirelessly helping to pack up years of old photographs stored in the newspaper's library.

Join us here for updates as the last day at The Advertiser unfolds.

And read more of this story in tomorrow's Honolulu Advertiser.