 The front page of the October 24, 2020, edition of the newspaper. | |
| Type | Dailynewspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Broadsheet |
| Owner | Helen E. Snedden Foundation |
| Publisher | Virginia Farmier |
| Managing editor | Gary Black |
| Staff writers | 6 |
| Founded | 1903 |
| Language | English |
| Headquarters | 200 North Cushman Street Fairbanks, Alaska 99701 United States |
| Circulation | 5,500 Daily 6,500 Sunday |
| Sister newspapers | Kodiak Daily Mirror |
| ISSN | 8750-5495 |
| Website | newsminer |
The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner is a morning daily newspaper serving the city ofFairbanks, Alaska, theFairbanks North Star Borough, theDenali Borough, and theYukon-Koyukuk Census Area in theU.S. state ofAlaska. Because Fairbanks is located at a latitude of 64.838 degrees north,[1] theNews-Miner offices are located farther north than those of any other daily newspaper in North America.[2] The paper is the oldest continuously operating daily in Alaska, by circulation it is the second-largest daily in the state. It was purchased by the Helen E. Snedden Foundation in 2016. The Snedden family were longtime owners of theNews-Miner, selling it to a family trust forDean Singleton andRichard Scudder, founders of the Media News Group in 1992.
TheNews-Miner was founded as theWeekly Fairbanks News in 1903 byGeorge M. Hill and assumed theNews-Miner name in 1909, under editor William Fentress Thompson, when Zachary Hickman sold his newspaper,The Miner News, to theFairbanks News. Thompson guided the paper through tough economic times as the gold near Fairbanks was mined out. During this period, theNews-Miner absorbed Fairbanks' other newspapers and became the sole publication in Fairbanks. During the 1920s, theNews-Miner experimented with aerial delivery to remote mining camps, becoming one of the first newspapers in the world to make regular deliveries by aircraft. After Thompson's death in 1926, former Fairbanks mayor Alfeld Hjalmar Nordale became the paper's editor.
In 1929, theNews-Miner was purchased by Alaska industrialist Austin E. Lathrop, who operated it under a series of editors until 1950. In that year, the paper was purchased by Charles Willis Snedden, who proceeded on a course of modernization. Under Snedden's leadership, theNews-Miner became one of the first papers in Alaska to print in color and survived a fire and the biggest flood in Fairbanks history.
TheNews-Miner has employed several notable Alaskans, including Sen.Bob Bartlett. Its mascot, Sourdough Jack, has been featured on the cover of every daily paper since 1952. TheNews-Miner has received numerous awards and recognitions during its history, particularly from the Alaska Press Club, which recognizes achievements by Alaska newspapers on an annual basis.
TheFairbanks Daily News-Miner in 2009 had a daily circulation of between 9,000 and 12,500 copies (sources vary),[3][4] and a Sunday circulation of about 12,000.[5] Overall readership statistics are somewhat higher. TheNews-Miner operates a web site, Newsminer.com,[6] which recorded roughly 250,000 unique visitors per year in 2009, according toAlexa.[7]
TheNews-Miner's circulation area encompasses about 179,287 square miles (464,351 km2) in central and northern Alaska. The circulation area includes theFairbanks North Star Borough, theYukon-Koyukuk Census Area, the northern portion of theDenali Borough, and portions of theSoutheast Fairbanks Census Area. Major settlements in the circulation area include the city of Fairbanks and the towns ofNorth Pole,Delta Junction,Healy,Fort Yukon, andTok.[8] There are no other daily newspapers in theNews-Miner's circulation area, but Fairbanks and southern portions of the Denali Borough are secondary circulation areas for theAnchorage Daily News, a daily newspaper based 360 miles (579 km) south, inAnchorage.[9]
The paper's coverage centers on local news with moderate reporting on state issues that affect Fairbanks and the surrounding area. Local sports, particularly theAlaska Goldpanners (charter members of the (Alaska Baseball League),Fairbanks Ice Dogs (North American Hockey League), and the various sports teams of theUniversity of Alaska Fairbanks are covered regularly by the newspaper.[10] TheNews-Miner produces several specialty publications in addition to the regular paper. Two publications,Latitude 65, a weekly arts supplement released on Thursday; andSundays, a feature reporting section published on Sundays, also are produced by newspaper staff. Several annual publications — a visitors' guide, winter survival guide, and others — also are released by the newspaper on a regular basis.
In 1901, traderEbenezer Barnette sailed up Alaska'sTanana River in hopes of establishing a trading post on the trail connecting the coastal town ofValdez with the gold-mining community ofEagle. Due to low water, however, the steamboat Barnette chartered was unable to continue up the river.[11] Discouraged, Barnette deposited his cache of goods on a riverbank of theChena River and sailed downstream with the intent of making another attempt to sail up the river during the following year. In 1902, minerFelix Pedro struck gold at a spot about 15 miles (24 km) north of the spot where Barnette had left his supplies.[11] Seeing an opportunity, Barnette decided to establish atrading post at the spot. Other miners and suppliers arrived, attracted by the gold, and Barnette named the settlement "Fairbanks", afterIndianasenator and laterVice President of the United StatesCharles W. Fairbanks.[11]
Through the fall and winter of 1902, word of the gold strike and the new settlement spread throughout Alaska and theYukon. PrinterGeorge M. Hill, who had been working inDawson City, packed up his small press and traveled to Fairbanks in early 1903.[12]: 5 On September 19, 1903, he printed the first newspaper in the new settlement: Volume I, Issue I of theWeekly Fairbanks News. Little is known about Hill's operation, but he likely used either aWashington Hand Press or an "Army" press — both were small machines designed for transport on a singlepackhorse or packmule.[12]: 7 Single copies of the first editions of the paper were $0.25 each, or $10 for a year's subscription.[12]: 7 The paper was 10 pages and had multiple advertisements, including one proclaiming that an election would be held on November 10 of that year for the purpose of incorporating the town.[12]: 8 On the front page was a statement of policy:
The News is intended to cover an unoccupied field in the rich interior of this truly wonderful country, and its career is entented (sic) upon with a realizing sense of the grave responsibility which is attached to such a task.
In May 1904, Hill sold theWeekly Fairbanks News to R. J. McChesney, who invested in aLinotype machine and a larger press. These improvements and the growing population of Fairbanks — by 1905, it had 2,500 residents — allowed theWeekly Fairbanks News to expand to semi-weekly, then daily publication, in the process becoming theFairbanks Daily News on July 1, 1905.[12]: 9 On September 3, theNews had its first competition when theFairbanks Sunday Times began publishing on the sole day that theNews did not. Other papers soon arrived in the area. In 1906, theValdez News reported, "With the newspaper plans already in Fairbanks and with those which are being shipped there this year, the Tanana metropolis will be well supplied. There are no less than five of them all told ..."[13] In May 1906, McChesney sold theDaily News to Fairbanks' founder, Ebenezer Barnette. Later that month, an enormous fire destroyed theDaily News press and much of Fairbanks.[12]: 10
Rather than wait for replacement equipment, Barnette purchased the press of a newly arrived editor,William Fentress Thompson, who had intended to set up his own newspaper.[12]: 11 As part of the purchasing deal in August 1906, Thompson was allowed to publish an evening paper—theTanana Daily Miner—while theFairbanks Daily News was published in the morning.[12]: 12 The deal lasted only through September, as Thompson and Barnette conflicted on a personal level.[12]: 13 TheTanana Miner was reduced to a weekly newspaper, then Thompson was deposed as editor of theFairbanks News in June 1907 and took theTanana Miner to the settlement ofChena, outside Fairbanks. Barnette, meanwhile, became embroiled in a series of legal troubles. He faced opposition from the owner of theFairbanks Times, A.L. Anderson, who had fought Barnette about several gold claims near Fairbanks and purchased theTimes to compete against Barnette.[12]: 14
In 1907, Barnette was accused ofembezzling money from the Fairbanks bank he operated, and he was sued by the man who had funded the venture that led to the founding of Fairbanks.[12]: 15 During the lawsuit, it was revealed that Barnette had been convicted oflarceny in Oregon. As his legal bills added up, Barnette decided to lease theFairbanks Daily News to a group of local businessmen. On June 15, 1908, Barnette ended the lease agreement by selling the newspaper to J. Harmon Caskey and Henry Roden.[12]: 17 That same year, the campaign to elect Alaska's first delegate toCongress was under way, and one of the candidates, Jack Corson, purchased one-third of the newspaper. Corson's campaign manager promptly was named the editor of theDaily News, and the paper switched to actively supporting Corson's candidacy.[12]: 17
During this time, William Thompson — best known as W.F. Thompson — began gathering investors to purchase theFairbanks Daily News. After Corson's candidacy failed and Thompson amassed $15,000 from investors, he purchased theDaily News in March 1909.[12]: 19 On March 18, 1909, theDaily News published its last issue. Four days later, it reopened under the nameFairbanks Daily News-Miner, an amalgam of the names of theDaily News and Thompson's previous operation, theTanana Miner. He chose the name over his first idea, theDaily Alaska Miner.[14]
When Thompson assumed majority ownership of the renamedFairbanks Daily News-Miner in early 1909, it was one of three daily newspapers in Fairbanks. The other two were theFairbanks Times and theTanana Daily Tribune.[12]: 23 Competition among the three newspapers was intense, and they often clashed about issues such as city council meetings, a permanent bridge over the Chena River, and the mineral prospects of the town ofIditarod, where gold had just been discovered. The intense rivalries were driven by the declining economic situation in Fairbanks, as the initial gold findings that inspired theFairbanks Gold Rush began to wane.[12]: 23
From the time Thompson took control until shortly after theSecond World War, theNews-Miner lacked a dedicated connection to the Associated Press. In the early years of the Thompson administration, he had a dedicated correspondent inSeattle whose job was to read the early editions of the Seattle newspapers, then hurry to the telegraph office and summarize what he had read to Thompson on the other end of the telegraph cable.[15] This system later was replaced by a dedicated contract with theAlaska Communications System, but that contract limited theNews-Miner to no more than 9,000 words per day of messages.[15]
On January 10, 1910, theTanana Tribune was absorbed by theNews-Miner. The owners of theTribune received shares in theNews-Miner (which were later bought back by Thompson), and one of theTribune's owners received its printing plant, which was moved toTacoma, Washington.[12]: 23 In 1911, Thompson feared the declining state of the Fairbanks economy and decided to leave Alaska. He sold his shares in the company, but returned after several months' absence and demanded the shares back. Los Bernard, who briefly served as the paper's publisher, returned the shares to Thompson, who resumed his role as publisher and editor.[12]: 25 Thompson's return coincided with a series of small gold discoveries atLivengood andShushanna that boosted the Fairbanks economy, as gold-seekers bought supplies in the town.[12]: 27
Thompson still wished to leave Alaska, however, and in 1915, he sold a majority share ofNews-Miner stock on option to O.P. Gaustad, aRepublican Party booster. Scandal erupted when it was revealed that Gaustad was merely a stand-in forJames Wickersham, who was Alaska's delegate to Congress. Partially because of the scandal, Gaustad was unable to sell the shares he held an option for, and Thompson returned to Alaska in spring 1916 to reassume his role as publisher.[12]: 29 Later that year, Republican interests took over theFairbanks Times, which had leaned toward theDemocratic Party.[12]: 29–30 The new owners of theTimes were unable to come up with financing for new equipment, however, and theTimes went out of business in October 1916.[12]: 30
Following the discontinuation of theTimes, theAlaska Weekly Citizen shifted to a daily publication schedule. This lasted until 1920, when a fire destroyed theCitizen's printing plant.[12]: 31 TheNews-Miner printed the two papers in conjunction for a time — both mastheads appeared on the same paper[12]: 82 — but after theCitizen was unable to obtain loans to rebuild, theNews-Miner assumed its subscription list and business contracts, and it became the sole daily newspaper in Fairbanks.[12]: 31
In May 1920, theSpanish flu reached Fairbanks and infected most of the newspaper staff. "We had to keep writing of flu and the typesetters kept setting flu stories until they began to imagine they had the flu and went—one, two, three—just like that," said Thompson in a story on the outbreak.[12]: 31 Two years later, Thompson and theNews-Miner strongly protested the city's order to evict theprostitutes living in a regulated district within Fairbanks. On September 24, 1922, Thompson reported that theNews-Miner's press had been sabotaged, oil had been mixed with the paper's printing ink, and a fire had been set in its office, presumably as a result of the paper's stance against eviction.[12]: 35
The decline of Fairbanks' economy was partially offset by the construction of theAlaska Railroad, and the arrival of PresidentWarren G. Harding to dedicate the railroad in 1923. Harding visited theNews-Miner offices and set a small bit of type for a special edition commemorating the visit.[12]: 33 Less than one month later, however, Harding died on his return from Alaska. Harding's visit coincided with the first commercial airplane flight in the state of Alaska on July 19. By the next year, copies of theNews-Miner were delivered regularly by aircraft to remote mining camps and roadhouses. In the process, theNews-Miner became the first newspaper to regularly deliver via aircraft.[12]: 33
Three years after Harding's death, William Thompson died on January 4, 1926.[12]: 39 He was replaced by assistant editor Alfeld Hjalmar Nordale, who had been mayor of Fairbanks. At the time, the newspaper was in dire straits. Circulation had declined with the falling Fairbanks population, and reached a low of about 500 in 1925, less than half what it was in 1909.[12]: 40 The paper still relied on an old flatbed press, which dated from the turn of the century.[12]: 42 The newspaper offices were aging, and there was little money to upgrade. Nordale was further stressed by a conflict between him and Thompson's widow, who was the majority shareholder. The conflict arose when two competing candidates for political office attempted to buy the paper's editorial support with pledges of money.[12]: 42 When Mrs. Thompson accepted one of the offers, Nordale asked that his name be removed from the newspaper. During the months leading up to the election, theNews-Miner produced dozens of editorials and reproduced the speeches of the candidate. After the candidate lost, however, he failed to follow through on his promises of payment. Nordale was reinstated as editor on February 1, 1927, vindicated by the candidate's indictment on four counts of violating the federal Corrupt Practices Act.[12]: 42
In 1927, Nordale hired a recent University of Alaska Fairbanks graduate namedBob Bartlett.[16] Bartlett had worked for the paper during school vacations, but he made journalism a full-time job following graduation. For four years, Bartlett was the only reporter (other than the editor) who regularly wrote local stories. In late 1930, Bartlett was made the paper's assistant editor in lieu of a raise that the paper couldn't afford to pay. Bartlett remained the paper's assistant editor until 1933, when he became the secretary toAnthony Dimond, Alaska's delegate to the U.S. Congress. Bartlett became the delegate to Congress in 1945, and in 1958, when Alaska hosted its first election for state office, Bartlett was elected one of its first two U.S. senators.[17]
In October 1928, theNews-Miner cut costs by moving to a new office. This allowed the purchase of a new Linotype machine, and further upgrades were promised when on November 8, 1929, theNews-Miner was purchased byAustin E. Lathrop, an Alaska industrialist.[12]: 43 Though Lathrop promised to inject money into theNews-Miner, his strong Republican leanings opposed those of Nordale, a confirmed Democrat. Nordale resigned in April 1930 and was replaced by Bernard Stone.[12]: 44 Stone and Lathrop turned theNews-Miner profitable before Stone was replaced by Charles R. Settlemier in 1936.[12]: 45 In 1935, theNews-Miner purchased two cylinder presses to replace the old flatbed press still in use. Owing to shipping difficulties, however, the presses and the new crew needed to operate them did not arrive until 1936. By that time, theNews-Miner was preparing to move into the new Lathrop Building, built by and named after the newspaper's owner.[12]: 46
As theGreat Depression hit the United States, Fairbanks bucked the poor economic trend. Thanks to the Alaska Railroad, large gold dredges could be brought in, and these returned the area's gold mines to profitability. In 1938, Lathrop took advantage of the good economic situation by reviving theAlaska Miner as a weekly supplement to theNews-Miner.[12]: 47 TheMiner covered happenings in the gold-mining camps outside Fairbanks and was focused on areas outside the city. In 1939, Fairbanks radio stationKFAR was founded, and it shared the Lathrop building with theNews-Miner, which occupied the bottom floors of the building.[12]: 49
In January 1941, a disagreement between Settlemier, one of his reporters, and the editor of theAlaska Miner resulted in several changes to theNews-Miner. Settlemier was replaced as editor by the reporter, David B. Tewkesbury, and theAlaska Miner was discontinued.[12]: 48 Its editor, E.F. Jessen, createdJessen's Weekly, a separate newspaper, to compete with theNews-Miner. TheWeekly lasted until 1968, when it was closed by the Internal Revenue Service.[12]: 51 The same year that Jessen founded his weekly newspaper, the United States became involved in theSecond World War. Travel to and from Alaska was restricted, and afterJapan invaded the Alaska islands ofAttu andKiska, theNews-Miner was censored by the U.S. Army.[12]: 49 Fairbanks benefited from a military construction boom as the United States built theNorthwest Staging Route to ferryLend-Lease aircraft to theSoviet Union. The boom left theNews-Miner short-staffed, but it continued operations throughout the war.[12]: 50
Just before the Japanese surrender that ended the war,News-Miner editor David Tewkesbury died.[12]: 53 He was replaced by Art Bremer, a reporter. The post-war boom caused a sudden shortage ofnewsprint, as paper mills were not able to meet the demand of a growing number of newspapers nationwide. This shortage caused theNews-Miner to run short until Lathrop used his industrial connections to divert a shipment from a newspaper that was going out of business.[12]: 53
The post-war years also saw theNews-Miner take a more active role in territorial politics. Prior to the1948 election, Lathrop believed Republican presidential candidateThomas Dewey would handily defeat Democratic incumbentHarry Truman.[12]: 55 To take advantage of the anticipated governmental shift, Lathrop instructed theNews-Miner to ramp up its pro-Republican editorials. In order to assist that process, he appointed William Strand, awar correspondent for theChicago Tribune, as theNews-Miner's new editor. Though Truman won the 1948 election, theNews-Miner stayed politically active in endorsing Republican candidates and issues. This ended only with Lathrop's death on July 26, 1950.[12]: 55
One week before Lathrop's death, he negotiated the sale of theNews-Miner to Charles Willis "Bill" Snedden.[12]: 55 Snedden was an efficiency expert and former printer who had been employed by Henry Kaiser during WWII. After the war, he began troubleshooting newspapers. Through 1949 and 1950, Snedden did an efficiency study of theNews-Miner and recommended about $100,000 in upgrades. Lathrop was unwilling to spend that much on the newspaper, and Snedden suggested that if Lathrop was unwilling to upgrade, Snedden would be interested in purchasing the paper. The two men worked out a verbal agreement before Lathrop was killed in a coal train accident.[12]: 57
One of Snedden's first actions was to readdress the paper's stance on Alaska statehood. Lathrop and theNews-Miner had been strongly opposed to statehood, but after Snedden took control, he analyzed the issue and came out strongly in favor of Alaska statehood.[12]: 58 TheNews-Miner continually published editorials in favor of statehood, and encouraged other newspapers across the U.S. to do the same.[18] In 1955 and 1956, when the Alaska Constitutional Convention took place at theUniversity of Alaska Fairbanks, theNews-Miner set up special telephone lines from the convention chambers to the newspaper's office. Daily reports were printed, recording the delegates' progress.[18]
TheNews-Miner strongly supported the political campaign for statehood until 1959, when Alaska became the 49th state of the United States.[19] On the day the U.S. Congress voted to have Alaska admitted as a state, Snedden arranged for aU.S. Air Force jet to fly copies of theNews-Miner, theAnchorage Times, and other Alaska newspapers to Washington, D.C. On the morning after the vote, each congressman had an Alaska newspaper proclaiming statehood.[18]
Snedden also embarked on a series of upgrades to theNews-Miner's printing equipment. In 1953, rotary printing was introduced to Fairbanks after Snedden purchased a used rotary press fromThe Sacramento Union.[12]: 59 To house the press, Snedden built a two-story building adjacent to the Lathrop Building. The Lathrop Building still contained most of theNews-Miner's offices and typesetting equipment, but it was not large enough to contain the new press without extensive renovations, thus requiring a new building. Shortly after the new press was introduced, theNews-Miner produced its first full-color newspaper.[12]: 59 The new equipment also allowed for larger print jobs, and Snedden introduced an annual Progress Edition that was intended to be distributed outside Alaska in order to attract business and industry to the state.[12]: 59 In 1954, theNews-Miner obtained a dedicated teletype to the Associated Press, avoiding the need for contracts for telephone and telegraph service to a correspondent in Seattle who would relay AP material to theNews-Miner.[15]
On November 23, 1957, tragedy struck when the Lathrop Building caught on fire.[12]: 60 Firemen rushed to the scene to put out the blaze and did so quickly, but not before the television and radio studios on the top floors of the building were destroyed. TheNews-Miner offices and printing facilities on the lower floors were spared from the flames, but suffered water damage. Due to winter temperatures, the water soon froze. Despite the conditions, the paper was produced on time the next day.[12]: 60
In 1964, the largest earthquake ever recorded in the United States struck Anchorage and southern Alaska, cutting communications to the outside world.[20] The quake was felt in Fairbanks, and it took 40 minutes for communications to be re-established with the Associated Press office in Seattle.[21] When the connection was restored, theNews-Miner sent the first reports of the earthquake to the outside world. The quake also destroyed the offices of theAnchorage Times, the leading newspaper in that city. TheNews-Miner offered its press facilities to theTimes, and the two papers shared a masthead as Anchorage recovered from the tremor.[21]
Shortly before the earthquake, theNews-Miner placed an order for a modernoffset printing press. To house the new press, which could not fit in the Lathrop Building, Snedden ordered the construction of a new printing facility and office—named the Aurora Building—north of the Chena River. The Alaska Railroad sold Snedden the land for the building, which was built at a cost of $1 million in 1965. Snedden ordered the foundation for the new building to be raised 22 inches (0.56 m) above the100-year flood line.[22] This fact saved theNews-Miner two years later, when a massive flood swept through Fairbanks. The water was three inches deep throughout the paper's offices and even deeper in the press and boiler rooms, which were slightly below that raised level. The flood halted production for a time, and theAnchorage Times reciprocated the post-earthquake favor by publishing theNews-Miner's masthead on its editions and posting occasional stories from Fairbanks until electrical power was restored to the town.[22]
In the early 1970s, prior to the construction of theTrans-Alaska Pipeline, the Fairbanks economy was unsteady. TheNews-Miner planned to expand its printing plant, but many in the company were unsure if the economy could support the added capacity.[18] Over the objections of theNews-Miner newsroom, Snedden decided to expand the Aurora Building by adding a second floor at a cost of $2 million. In 1974, as construction of the pipeline got under way, demand for office space in Fairbanks was so great thatAlyeska Pipeline Company rented severalNews-Miner offices in the newly expanded building.[18] About this time, theNews-Miner replaced its Associated Press teletypes with a satellite connection.[15]
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Snedden created a plan to let the paper's employees buy the company and keep ownership local.[23] This plan was under way at the time of Snedden's death in 1989, but by 1992, many of the paper's employees were nearing retirement age. This factor, and the need for costly upgrades to expand the paper onto theInternet, led to a decision to sell theNews-Miner toDean Singleton andRichard Scudder, co-founders of theMediaNews Group newspaper chain. In order to preserve the paper's independence—something desired by Snedden—theNews-Miner was purchased by the family trusts of the two men, with ownership split 50/50 between the two trusts.[24][23]
In 1998, theNews-Miner's owners acquired theKodiak Daily Mirror from Duane and Nancy Freeman. At the time theNews-Miner had a 17,000 circulation and theMirror a 3,000 circulation.[25] After the sale Nancy Freeman was replaced asMirror publisher by Asa Cole.[26]
Chuck Gray, the last publisher of theNews-Miner under Snedden's ownership (he served from 1989–1992), was retained as publisheremeritus in an advisory capacity. Paul Massey was named the first publisher of the post-Snedden era.[27] He was replaced by Marilyn Romano in 2003.[28] Romano took a job withAlaska Airlines in 2011 as regional vice president.[29] Kathryn Strle became the interim publisher/general manager.[30] In 2012, the paper launched a redesigned website.[31] In 2014, veteran newspaper executive Marti Buscaglia was named publisher.[32][33] In 2015, theNews-Miner added apaywall to its website.[34]
In January 2016, theNews-Miner andKodiak Daily Mirror were sold to the nonprofit Helen E. Snedden Foundation. At that time theNews-Miner had a 13,442 circulation and theMirror a 1,081 circulation.[35] Fuller Cowell was then made publisher,[36][37] but retired in 2018 and was replaced by Richard Harris.[38] Revenue declined over the years which led theNews-Miner to layoff four employees in 2020, amounting to about 7% of its 55 person staff.[39][40] Virginia Farmier, executive director of the paper's nonprofit owner, was named publisher in 2023.[41] Later that year theNews-Miner eliminated its Saturday print edition.[42][43]
Since 1952, theNews-Miner has featured a small cartoon figure named "Sourdough Jack" at the bottom of its front page. The drawing of Sourdough Jack is always paired with a comment on a news story, pun, or joke, apparently having been spoken by the figure. The idea for Sourdough Jack came fromNews-Miner editor John J. Ryan, who said, "People had many complaints about the town. ... He could make fun of that stuff and that would give people a chance to laugh at their problems."[44] Sourdough Jack's name came from Ryan's nickname (Jack) and the traditional nickname given to an old miner (sourdough).[44] Jack Ryan worked for theSeattle Post-Intelligencer later in his life. He got tired of his mail getting mixed up with another journalist, so in the '70s he legally changed it to John O'Ryan.[45]
In the first days of the cartoon's existence, Jack often commented on alcohol, his lack of a job, and his wife. In recent years, the cartoon has taken apolitically correct tone, except on occasion. After theSept. 11 attacks, Sourdough Jack was pictured shaking his fist and saying, "It's time to terrorize the terrorists!" About that time, the original Sourdough Jack drawings that had been reproduced since 1952 were replaced by new drawings made in a similar style. This was required due to the growing fuzziness of the reproduced image and the transition to digital newspaper production.[44]
In its history, theNews-Miner has been awarded dozens of accolades by theAlaska Press Club and other organizations. In 1986,News-Miner reporter Stan Jones was awarded aGeorge Polk Award for writing a story that led to impeachment proceedings against Alaska governorBill Sheffield.[46] In 2009, the paper won several commendations from the Alaska Press Club for photography, sportswriting, features writing, and other accomplishments.[47]
