The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner is a morning daily newspaper serving the city of Fairbanks, Alaska, the Fairbanks North Star Borough, the Denali Borough, and the Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area in the U.S. state of Alaska. Because Fairbanks is located at a latitude of 64.838 degrees north,U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. "August 2008 permits" (PDF), Poa.usace.army.mil. Accessed May 13, 2009. the News-Miner offices are located farther north than those of any other daily newspaper in North America.University of Alaska Fairbanks. "Department of Journalism", UAF.edu. Retrieved April 18, 2009. The paper is the oldest continuously operating daily in Alaska, and 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 the News-Miner, selling it to a family trust for Dean Singleton and Richard Scudder, founders of the Media News Group in 1992.
The News-Miner was founded as the Weekly Fairbanks News in 1903 by George M. Hill and assumed the News-Miner name in 1909, under editor William Fentress Thompson, when Zachary Hickman sold his newspaper, The Miner News, to the Fairbanks News. Thompson guided the paper through tough economic times as the gold near Fairbanks was mined out. During this period, the News-Miner absorbed Fairbanks' other newspapers and became the sole publication in Fairbanks. During the 1920s, the News-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, the News-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, the News-Miner became one of the first papers in Alaska to print in color and survived a fire and the biggest flood in Fairbanks history.
The News-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. The News-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.
Circulation and coverage
The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner in 2009 had a daily circulation of between 9,000 and 12,500 copies (sources vary),Pacific Northwest Newspaper Association. "Newspaper members" , PNNA.com. Retrieved April 7, 2009.Mondo Newspapers. "Alaska Newspapers, listed by city" , Mondonewspapers.com. Retrieved April 15, 2009. and a Sunday circulation of about 12,000.McMeekin, Tara. "Alaska daily beefing up digital foundation with Agfa", The International Journal of Newspapers and Technology. October 2008. Retrieved April 15, 2009. Overall readership statistics are somewhat higher. The News-Miner operates a web site, Newsminer.com,Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, newsminer.com. Retrieved April 18, 2009. which recorded roughly 250,000 unique visitors per year in 2009, according to Alexa.Alexa. "Fairbanks Daily News-Miner", Alexa.com. Retrieved April 15, 2009.
The News-Miner's circulation area encompasses about in central and northern Alaska. The circulation area includes the Fairbanks North Star Borough, the Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area, the northern portion of the Denali Borough, and portions of the Southeast Fairbanks Census Area. Major settlements in the circulation area include the city of Fairbanks and the towns of North Pole, Delta Junction, Healy, Fort Yukon, and Tok.Knight Foundation. "Demographics of ZIP Codes where sales were reported by Fairbanks Daily News-Miner", Powerreporting.com. June 2005. Retrieved April 19, 2009. There are no other daily newspapers in the News-Miner's circulation area, but Fairbanks and southern portions of the Denali Borough are secondary circulation areas for the Anchorage Daily News, a daily newspaper based south, in Anchorage.Alice Rogoff. "Anchorage Daily News", adn.com. Retrieved June 3, 2016.
The paper's coverage centers on local news with moderate reporting on state issues that affect Fairbanks and the surrounding area. Local sports, particularly the Alaska Goldpanners (charter members of the (Alaska Baseball League), Fairbanks Ice Dogs (North American Hockey League), and the various sports teams of the University of Alaska Fairbanks are covered regularly by the newspaper.Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. [www.newsminer.com/news/sports/ Fairbanks Daily News-Miner Sports], newsminer.com. Retrieved April 19, 2009. The News-Miner produces several specialty publications in addition to the regular paper. Two publications, Latitude 65, a weekly arts supplement released on Thursday; and Sundays, 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.
Early years
Foundation
In 1901, trader Ebenezer Barnette sailed up Alaska's Tanana River in hopes of establishing a trading post on the trail connecting the coastal town of Valdez with the gold-mining community of Eagle. Due to low water, however, the steamboat Barnette chartered was unable to continue up the river.City of Fairbanks. "Fairbanks History" , ci.fairbanks.ak.us. Retrieved April 15, 2009. Discouraged, Barnette deposited his cache of goods on a riverbank of the Chena River and sailed downstream with the intent of making another attempt to sail up the river during the following year. In 1902, miner Felix Pedro struck gold at a spot about north of the spot where Barnette had left his supplies. Seeing an opportunity, Barnette decided to establish a trading post at the spot. Other miners and suppliers arrived, attracted by the gold, and Barnette named the settlement "Fairbanks", after Indiana senator and later Vice President of the United States Charles W. Fairbanks.
Through the fall and winter of 1902, word of the gold strike and the new settlement spread throughout Alaska and the Yukon. Printer George M. Hill, who had been working in Dawson City, packed up his small press and traveled to Fairbanks in early 1903. On September 19, 1903, he printed the first newspaper in the new settlement: Volume I, Issue I of the Weekly Fairbanks News. Little is known about Hill's operation, but he likely used either a Washington Hand Press or an "Army" press — both were small machines designed for transport on a single packhorse or pack mule. Single copies of the first editions of the paper were $0.25 each, or $10 for a year's subscription. 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. On the front page was a statement of policy:
Newspaper wars In May 1904, Hill sold the Weekly Fairbanks News to R. J. McChesney, who invested in a Linotype machine and a larger press. These improvements and the growing population of Fairbanks — by 1905, it had 2,500 residents — allowed the Weekly Fairbanks News to expand to semi-weekly, then daily publication, in the process becoming the Fairbanks Daily News on July 1, 1905. On September 3, the News had its first competition when the Fairbanks Sunday Times began publishing on the sole day that the News did not. Other papers soon arrived in the area. In 1906, the Valdez 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 ..."Staff Report. The Valdez News. April 14, 1906. p. 1 In May 1906, McChesney sold the Daily News to Fairbanks' founder, Ebenezer Barnette. Later that month, an enormous fire destroyed the Daily News press and much of Fairbanks.
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. As part of the purchasing deal in August 1906, Thompson was allowed to publish an evening paper—the Tanana Daily Miner—while the Fairbanks Daily News was published in the morning. The deal lasted only through September, as Thompson and Barnette conflicted on a personal level. The Tanana Miner was reduced to a weekly newspaper, then Thompson was deposed as editor of the Fairbanks News in June 1907 and took the Tanana Miner to the settlement of Chena, outside Fairbanks. Barnette, meanwhile, became embroiled in a series of legal troubles. He faced opposition from the owner of the Fairbanks Times, A.L. Anderson, who had fought Barnette about several gold claims near Fairbanks and purchased the Times to compete against Barnette.
In 1907, Barnette was accused of embezzling 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. During the lawsuit, it was revealed that Barnette had been convicted of larceny in Oregon. As his legal bills added up, Barnette decided to lease the Fairbanks 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. That same year, the campaign to elect Alaska's first delegate to Congress 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 the Daily News, and the paper switched to actively supporting Corson's candidacy.
During this time, William Thompson — best known as W.F. Thompson — began gathering investors to purchase the Fairbanks Daily News. After Corson's candidacy failed and Thompson amassed $15,000 from investors, he purchased the Daily News in March 1909. On March 18, 1909, the Daily News published its last issue. Four days later, it reopened under the name Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, an amalgam of the names of the Daily News and Thompson's previous operation, the Tanana Miner. He chose the name over his first idea, the Daily Alaska Miner.Cole, Dermot. "First publisher proposed naming his Fairbanks newspaper 'Daily Alaska Miner'", Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. March 18, 2009. Retrieved April 15, 2009.
Territorial days
Consolidation When Thompson assumed majority ownership of the renamed Fairbanks Daily News-Miner in early 1909, it was one of three daily newspapers in Fairbanks. The other two were the Fairbanks Times and the Tanana Daily Tribune. 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 of Iditarod, 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 the Fairbanks Gold Rush began to wane.
From the time Thompson took control until shortly after the Second World War, the News-Miner lacked a dedicated connection to the Associated Press. In the early years of the Thompson administration, he had a dedicated correspondent in Seattle 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.Cole, Dermot. "Getting News to Fairbanks hasn't always been easy", 100 Years, Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. September 19, 2003. This system later was replaced by a dedicated contract with the Alaska Communications System, but that contract limited the News-Miner to no more than 9,000 words per day of messages.