The Honolulu Advertiser is making changes to its format in an effort to cut costs.
The paper is eliminating its TV book, folding its business section into its local news section and eliminating the editorial page on Saturdays.
Jeanne Mariani-Belding, editor of The Advertiser’s editorial and opinion section, said in a column Sunday the Advertiser chose to cut its editorial page on Saturdays because of low readership of the newspaper that day.
Several of the newspaper's editorial staff members, including cartoonist Dick Adair, recently retired or left the newspaper.
Senior vice president and editor Mark Platte said in a column on Sunday that the Advertiser is eliminating its TV book from the Sunday paper starting next week but will expand its daily TV listings.
On Monday, the paper also combined the weekday business news section, the Hawaii section and the classified advertising section into one section to cut newsprint and production costs.
"As you are aware, we are being hit hard by the economy like everyone else and we need to find efficiencies where we can," Platte wrote. "But we also wanted a convenient all-local supersection and early reaction from focus groups was very positive."
Platte said local columnist Lee Cataluna will write four columns a week, up from three, starting this week with the addition of a Thursday column.
The Honolulu Star-Bulletin, in a similar move, combined its business section with its local news section in December.
The Advertiser, Hawaii's largest daily newspaper, is owned by Gannett Co. Inc. (NYSE: GCI).