The Honolulu Star-Advertiser passed 100,000 “likes” on Facebook today, solidifying its position among the top 10 American newspapers on the social networking site and becoming the first Hawaii news organization to reach the milestone.

The newspaper is the 7th-most liked U.S. newspaper in a list dominated by much-larger papers in bigger markets. The Star-Advertiser’s popularity on Facebook puts it behind No. 6 USA Today, which has more than 160,000 likes, and ahead of the Chicago Tribune with more than 53,000 likes. The New York Times leads the list with more than 2.36 million.

The milestone was reached in just over two years after the paper was created by the June 2010 merger of the Honolulu Star-Bulletin and the Honolulu Advertiser.