Alaska Dispatch was a news organization founded in 2008 and based in

Anchorage, Alaska Anchorage, officially the Municipality of Anchorage, is the List of cities in Alaska, most populous city in the U.S. state of Alaska. With a population of 291,247 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it contains nearly 40 percent of ...

. It was originally an online news outlet focusing on statewide coverage of the U.S. state of

Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...

, and on circumpolar affairs and policy. In 2014, the organization purchased the ''

Anchorage Daily News The ''Anchorage Daily News'' is a daily newspaper published by the Binkley Co., and based in Anchorage, Alaska. It is the most widely read newspaper and news website (adn.com) in the state of Alaska. The newspaper is headquartered in Anchorage, ...

'' from

McClatchy Newspapers McClatchy Media Company, or simply McClatchy and MCC, is an American publishing company incorporated under Delaware's General Corporation Law. Originally based in Sacramento, California, United States, and known as The McClatchy Company, it ...

, merging the two news operations under the masthead ''Alaska Dispatch News''. In 2017, the combined news organization declared bankruptcy and was sold to Binkley Group; the newspaper reverted to its previous name.

History

Alaska Dispatch began as an Alaska news

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in 2008, started by former Bloomberg and Newsweek correspondent Tony Hopfinger and his then-wife, journalist Amanda Coyne, who wrote articles and blogs for Alaska Dispatch until late 2012. In 2009, Alice Rogoff, former '' U.S. News & World Report'' chief financial officer and wife of

Carlyle Group The Carlyle Group Inc. is an American multinational company with operations in private equity, alternative asset management and financial services. As of 2023, the company had $426 billion of assets under management. Carlyle specializes in ...

co-founder David Rubenstein, bought a majority share in the website, and the organization moved into a hangar located along Anchorage's

Merrill Field Merrill Field is a public-use general aviation airport located one mile (1.6 km) east of downtown Anchorage, Alaska, Anchorage in the U.S. state of Alaska. The airport is owned by Municipality of Anchorage. It opened in 1930 as Anchorage A ...

Airport, where Rogoff, a licensed pilot, also houses her Cessna 206. With Rogoff's investment, the staff grew to include journalists who had previously worked for other Alaska news outlets, including the ''

Fairbanks Daily News-Miner The '' Fairbanks Daily News-Miner'' is a morning daily newspaper serving the city of Fairbanks, Alaska, the Fairbanks North Star Borough, the Denali Borough, Alaska, Denali Borough, and the Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area, Alaska, Yukon-Koyukuk Census ...

'', the '' Anchorage Press'', local

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affiliate KTUU and the ''

''. In 2009, the site earned positive coverage for its series on a massacre of

caribou The reindeer or caribou (''Rangifer tarandus'') is a species of deer with circumpolar distribution, native to Arctic, subarctic, tundra, boreal, and mountainous regions of Northern Europe, Siberia, and North America. It is the only represe ...

in the rural Alaska village of Point Hope. In 2010, the ''

Columbia Journalism Review The ''Columbia Journalism Review'' (''CJR'') is a biannual magazine for professional journalists that has been published by the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism since 1961. Its original purpose was "to assess the performance ...

'' called Alaska Dispatch "a regional reporting powerhouse," while the ''American Journalism Review'' did a lengthy profile of the news site's willingness to fly a reporter thousands of miles to cover the

Deepwater Horizon oil spill The ''Deepwater Horizon'' oil spill was an environmental disaster off the coast of the United States in the Gulf of Mexico, on the BP-operated Macondo Prospect. It is considered the largest marine oil spill in the history of the petroleum in ...

in the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico () is an oceanic basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, mostly surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north, and northwest by the Gulf Coast of the United States; on the southw ...

. In that same profile, an editor of the ''Anchorage Daily News'' newspaper, at the time one of the site's competitors, referred to Alaska Dispatch's coverage as inconsistent, and questioned the sustainability of its business model. In 2011, Alaska Dispatch won first place in the breaking news category in the "Best of the West" journalism competition for its coverage of the August 2010 plane crash that killed former

U.S. Senator The United States Senate is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and House have the authority under Article One of the ...

Ted Stevens Theodore Fulton Stevens Sr. (November 18, 1923 – August 9, 2010) was an American politician and lawyer who served as a United States Senate, U.S. Senator from Alaska from 1968 to 2009. He was the longest-serving Republican Party (United St ...

and four others, beating out the larger-market '' Oregonian'' and ''

Seattle Times ''The Seattle Times'' is an American daily newspaper based in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1891, ''The Seattle Times'' has the largest circulation of any newspaper in the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region. The Seattle Time ...

'' newspapers for the top prize. In 2012, a report detailing the problems surrounding a remote airport project servicing the Aleutian community of Akutan won first place in the Best General Reporting category. The site covered many statewide topics, with a particular focus on oil and gas policies in Alaska, fisheries and wildlife management, outdoor activities such as sled dog mushing and mountaineering, rural affairs and Alaska Native corporations, Alaska politics, and worldwide Arctic geopolitics and climate change. The organization also featured a "Bush Pilot" section, which covers aviation topics in Alaska and abroad. In April 2014, it was announced that the Alaska Dispatch would be buying the ''Anchorage Daily News'' for $34 million. Now under new ownership, the ''Anchorage Daily News'' was renamed the ''Alaska Dispatch News'', reflecting the newspaper's statewide focus while preserving its recognizable "ADN" abbreviation and

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, three months later. The news outlets merged their websites in July 2014 as well. In 2017, Alaska Dispatch News declared bankruptcy following issues with its lease and the general downturn in newspaper circulation. The organization was sold for $1 million to the Binkley Group, and paper reverted to its previous name ''Anchorage Daily News''.

Editorial staff in 2013, prior to ADN merger

* Tony Hopfinger (executive editor) * Mike Campbell (managing editor) * Loren Holmes (multimedia editor / photographer) * Eric Adams (news editor) * Scott Woodham (news editor) * Ben Anderson (reporter) * Laurel Andrews (reporter) * Jill Burke (reporter) * Suzanna Caldwell (reporter) * Alex DeMarban (reporter) * Pat Forgey (reporter) * Aaron Jansen (art director) * Craig Medred (reporter) * Megan Edge (calendar editor / writer) * Tara Young (videographer) * Jerzey Shedlock (reporter) * Sean Doogan (reporter) * Yereth Rosen (arctic editor / writer) * Rick Sinnott (reporter)

References

External links

{{Portal, Alaska, Journalism
''Alaska Dispatch''
2008 establishments in Alaska American news websites Mass media in Anchorage, Alaska