When major breaking news occurs on a Sunday morning, as it did last week with Aloha Airlines announcing it was going out of business, getting the word out is a special challenge.

Our typical Sunday city desk staffing is one reporter tasked with an early assignment and an editor on duty with a clerk answering the phones. In other words, a skeleton staff.

This past Sunday, reporter Rick Daysog got a tip at about 9 a.m. that some very bad news was coming down from Aloha. The worst-case scenario would be a complete shutdown of Aloha, but that seemed far-fetched just 11 days after the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. By 11:03 a.m., we were posting on our Web site that Mainland passenger service would end that night and interisland service would be terminated the following day.

Ten reporters, four editors and two photographers put aside other plans for the day and started working. With six hours to go before the first television broadcasts on Sunday night, we knew we had to move fast to fill the information gap. We posted a main story of the developments, looked at how the Neighbor Islands were affected, provided answers to the most obvious questions about the shutdown, listed help for those laid off and printed several other stories. We completed a video just before the 5 p.m. news.

Web page views for the day hit 521,591, a 25 percent increase over the previous week. From 3 to 9 p.m., we were getting 30,000 page views each hour.

We turned then to the print edition and produced five open pages of information, completing eight stories that looked at the events of the day, the impact on employees, stranded passengers, Aloha's rich history, lawmakers' reactions, the economic impact on the state and an analysis of why the airlines' finances dwindled so quickly. We offered up past stories that would give readers perspective of what led up to the bankruptcy.

On Monday, we had to do it all over again, producing more online breaking news posts on the situation, which included the bankruptcy court judge's decision not to stand in the way of the shutdown, Gov. Linda Lingle's unsuccessful attempts to intervene, passengers scrambling for other flights, a historical photo gallery and a job bank forum that connected those unemployed to those offering jobs.

The Tuesday print edition featured reporter Christie Wilson and photographer Andrew Shimabuku on Aloha's final flight, more information on laid-off employees and their job outlook, a summary of the day's events, how other carriers were helping out, a Lee Cataluna column, a profile of the still-functioning cargo unit, and outtakes of comments posted on www.honoluluadvertiser.com. From Sunday to Tuesday, we recorded nearly 230,000 page views for stories related to Aloha Airlines. Overall page views hit 838,000 on Monday and 855,000 on Tuesday, a 32 percent increase over the previous week.

Interest in this story obviously is high and our focus is now on the unemployed. Reporter Dan Nakaso did a fabulous job profiling families affected by the shutdown — two married pilots with a child on the way, a mom with two young children and a 58-year-old worker who hasn't had to find a job since he was 20.

As usual, the Advertiser staff rose to the occasion on a major story, one of the biggest in years, and made me once again appreciate the talent in the room. But there is a sweeping sense of sadness about the loss of more local jobs and what the future might hold for our friends and neighbors. Now more than ever, we have an obligation to tell their stories.

Mark Platte is senior vice president/editor of The Advertiser. Reach him at mplatte@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8080.