One day after taking over operations of the Honolulu Advertiser, HA Management Inc. yesterday issued layoff notices to more than 500 employees of the state's largest newspaper.

HA Management is a management company hired by Honolulu Star-Bulletin owner David Black to run the Advertiser while he merges the two dailies into a single newspaper to be known as the Honolulu Star-Advertiser.

Yesterday, HA Management told Advertiser employees it plans to complete the consolidation between July 3 and July 17. When the merger is completed, HA Management said it plans to terminate Advertiser employees.

Star-Bulletin officials have said that they plan to hire between 300 and 600 employees for the merged newspaper. The Honolulu Advertiser and The Star-Bulletin combined employ about 900 people.

Under Hawai'i's Dislocated Workers Act and the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, HA Management must provide 60-day notice to employees if the sale of the company results in mass layoffs.

Gannett Co., which sold the Advertiser to Black, issued a similar notice to employees in March.