The Honolulu Advertiser was honored yesterday with a major national award for leadership in newsroom diversity.

The Advertiser won in the category for large newspapers competing for the fourth annual Robert G. McGruder Awards for Diversity Leadership, which were presented at the Associated Press Managing Editors convention in San Jose, Calif.

"The Honolulu Advertiser is more than making good on its mission to 'provide a voice for all of the community,' " said Suki Dardarian, an awards judge and deputy managing editor/metro of The Seattle Times.

"The mission permeates everything it does. Its staff is among the most diverse in the nation — in a community that is rich in diversity. And the staff's appetite to learn more about that community, explore the nuances of that diversity and improve its coverage is impressive."

The McGruder Awards are given by the APME and the American Society of Newspaper Editors in partnership with the Freedom Forum, which provides funding. Awards are given to individuals, newsrooms or teams of journalists who embody the spirit of McGruder, a highly regarded newspaper editor and diversity champion who died of cancer in 2002.

The 2005 award for newspapers with circulation under 75,000 went to the Argus Leader of Sioux Falls, S.D.

"The Freedom Forum is pleased that newsroom diversity efforts are thriving in states as different as Hawai'i and South Dakota, and in papers as large as The Honolulu Advertiser and as small as the Argus Leader," said Charles Overby, chairman, chief executive officer and president of the Freedom Forum.

"We hope these smart and strategic leaders will inspire others nationwide."