Gannett Publisher Fisch Leaves Honolulu for Suburban N.Y.

By: E&P Staff The Gannett Co. has appointed Lee P. Webber president and publisher of The Honolulu Advertiser. The former publisher of Gannett's Pacific Daily News in Guam takes over from Mike Fisch, who moves to White Plains, N.Y., as president and publisher of The Journal News, Gannett's Westchester County daily.

Fisch joined the Advertiser in 1998 after spending six years as president and CEO at The Bakersfield Californian. Under Fisch, the Advertiser erected an $82 million production and packaging plant, ended its joint operating agreement with the Honnolulu Star-Bulletin (which Gannett earlier owned) and launched or acquired 90 other publications, including a Japanese-language edition of the Advertiser.

Noting Webber's involvement in various community groups, the Advertiser quoted Fisch saying, "Lee is here because he understands the Islands, he understands the Pacific, he understands Asia, he understands tourism."

As for Fisch, his former paper quoted Wayne Cahill, chief administrator of the Hawaii Newspaper Guild, saying that his union had "a good working relationship" with the outgoing publisher, who he called "a good ambassador for the company in the community."

A Pennsylvania native, Webber spent 37 years at the Pacific Daily News, the last 24 as publisher. A Navy corpsman during the Vietnam War, he served his final two years at the U.S. Naval Hospital in Guam. In 1970, he told the Advertiser, "I walked out of the back door of the Navy and into the front door of the newspaper."

Fisch started selling advertising for his local paper while still in high school, then worked for other Minnesota papers before moving on to Madison, Wis., and The Hartford (Conn.) Courant.

Replacing Webber as publisher of the Pacific Daily News is Rindraty Celes Limtiaco, who most recently served as executive editor.