Northern Journal 🤝 Anchorage Press
We're (re-)launching a newspaper.
I have some news.
Alongside some capable, dedicated colleagues, I’m (re-)launching a newspaper.
After more than a year of work, we announced today that we have a deal to buy the assets of the Anchorage Press — a beloved alternative weekly newspaper that had 30 years of history by the time an out-of-state media company effectively closed it a few years ago. Over the next few months, we’ll work to bring the Press back to life, with ongoing digital publication culminating with a big launch party and our first print issue this fall.
I have much more to say about the Press, and I’ll come back to it in a minute. But first I want to address the question that’s probably coming up for many of you: What about Northern Journal?
The short answer: It will fold into the new Anchorage Press, with Northern Journal’s staff, its archive and its journalistic DNA at the core of a new, but similar, media organization with an expanded outlook. Both correspondent Max Graham and I will be doing much of the same work as part of a larger organization, with more resources and more colleagues to support us.
[Questions about what will happen to your Northern Journal membership? Read our separate post with the details.]
It’s both an exciting and hard moment for me. I launched Northern Journal in late 2022 with no guarantee of success — hoping, at least, that the publication I envisioned could capitalize on reader interest in a high-profile election year. I had no idea whether people would read it, or whether it would make any money.
Immediately, subscriptions started pouring in. Media outlets across the state began picking up my stories, through a republication partnership with the Alaska Beacon. And I started hearing from engaged readers, who in the nearly four years since have turned into loyal followers who question, critique and support our work.
More than 700 paying members now help cover not just reporting expenses but also a livable salary for me. Foundations have stepped up with generous grants to support expensive bush plane flights, in addition to nearly all of Max’s compensation.
That support has allowed us to find and report stories that otherwise might have gone unnoticed or unreported. We’ve traveled to villages off the road system, to remote oil platforms and mining prospects, and to communities far north of the Arctic Circle.
My publishing system counts some 280 stories published, with dispatches from one of the farthest south communities in the state, Metlakatla, and its northernmost, Utqiagvik. Many of those pieces have leveraged the power of collaboration and partnership to tap into knowledge and skills that Northern Journal lacked — like in photography and graphic design, for example.
Since 2022, we’ve reported stories in partnerships with ProPublica, Alaska Public Media, the Anchorage Daily News, APM Reports and Western Alaska public media organization KYUK, among others. And our republication agreement with the Alaska Beacon has led to syndication in more than a dozen other outlets at no cost, ensuring that our stories have a broad reach across the state.
I’m deeply grateful to everyone who’s allowed Max and me to do this work over the past few years. There’s no job I’d rather be doing, and no place I’d rather do it.
I’d also like to publicly thank Max, who’s been an instrumental part of Northern Journal’s success. Since he started writing for the site a couple of years ago, he’s preserved all of his journalistic and human competencies that I value and often envy: curiosity, humility, energy and a sense of humor. I’m immensely grateful for his hard work and just hope no national media outlets poach him away from our new venture.
We could have happily kept on doing what we’re doing. Being a tiny, pirate-ship-like operation has afforded us enormous flexibility, and the ability to focus tightly on our stories.
But a two-person shop only has so much capacity — and I feel like I spend every day turning down compelling stories and ideas. Reviving the Anchorage Press is a way to expand our vision while also building on the original idea for Northern Journal.
Stories to make you laugh, cry and think
Now for the fun part: the Press.
Initially, I’d written here that the Press “is going to be awesome.” But my editor — who also happens to be my mom — rejected that as too nonspecific. So, here’s the working mission statement we’ve developed for the publication:
The Anchorage Press seeks to inform and inspire Alaskans by telling stories with grit, wit and integrity. We foster mutual understanding, connection and a shared vision across Alaska’s broad geographies, politics and culture. We question authority, confront unpleasant truths and powerful interests, and celebrate Alaskan brilliance.
If you like what you’ve been getting from Northern Journal, we’re going to be doing the same stuff at the Press: in-depth, fact-rich reporting on Alaska’s natural resources, government and politics.
We’re also, though, going to be publishing other reporting and writing — a limited amount at first, as we build out a budget and hire new staff. But ultimately, we’ll give you more.
Starting in the fall: reporting on Anchorage arts and culture; recurring columns on topics like food and romance; a comprehensive community calendar; print issues that you can pick up and hold in your hands.
As we expand? Our vision includes, but isn’t limited to: Deep reporting on Alaska’s criminal justice system; an Indigenous affairs correspondent; basement concerts and other live events; an expansion of our arts and culture coverage far beyond Anchorage. Beyond publishing stories, we want to serve as a hub for community connection — and even for fun and entertainment.
The Press was founded in the early 1990s and operated as a classic alt-weekly — an edgier, more pointed, even snarky alternative to the mainstream media. “Edgy” may not be the first adjective you’d assign to Northern Journal, but the alt-weekly is in my professional blood: My mentor in graduate school, the late Wayne Barrett, was a legendary and fearless investigative reporter at the renowned New York City alt-weekly, the Village Voice — where he had no sacred cows.
Much of my work for the past few years has been more conventional news writing — fact-driven, and mostly in a toned-down third-person voice. But sharper, more identifiable voices, I think, are currently in short supply in Alaska media, and in my opinion, a healthy, free press encompasses all kinds of news and writing — not just hard news but also fun stories, funny stories, stories that make you cry and stories that make you think.
And I do think that if you look closely, you can see that some of the stories Northern Journal has published reflect that desire for a broader range: my first-person account of my quest to pry loose the governor’s texts with Donald Trump; Max’s dispatch on the secret life of a tiny, ugly fish; ‘The Great Alaska Walrus Caper of 2023’; a Californian’s review of Alaska burritos.
Nathaniel Herz
The idea of resurrecting the Press first came up last year, when I was approached by a Seattle-based new media company, Noisy Creek. Noisy Creek is trying to reinvigorate alt-weeklies across the country — it already owns The Stranger in Seattle, the Chicago Reader and the Portland Mercury — and was considering an expansion into Alaska via an acquisition of the Press. Our discussions eventually turned toward having me as the editor of the publication.
In the process, I started talking and then working with Veri di Suvero, a friend whom Noisy Creek had approached about being the Press’ publisher.
I knew Veri socially, and also professionally through their work as the director of the Alaska Public Interest Research Group, a consumer advocacy organization. And I knew that Veri was competent: Since arriving in Alaska in 2017, Veri had turned AKPIRG from a one-person shop — the one person being Veri — into a powerhouse with more than 25 staff.
Noisy Creek’s acquisition ultimately didn’t pan out. But Veri and I kept talking, and we decided to keep working, because we were excited about the idea of reviving a media organization outside Alaska’s mainstream — one that could help foster community, confront hard truths and hold people in power accountable. I’ve come to respect Veri enormously as a thinker, collaborator and thought partner — and most importantly, someone who approaches both their work and life ethically and with integrity.
While Veri and I have taken the lead on the Press reboot, we have maintained a partnership with Noisy Creek. We’re keen to learn from the success that Noisy Creek has seen with its other outlets and to lean on their experience with fundraising and technology.
We need your help
As with Northern Journal, Veri and I don’t see the Press as replacing or directly competing with Anchorage’s and Alaska’s existing outlets. Instead, we hope to fill a niche that, right now, is unoccupied — and, in doing so, to create some new partnerships that could boost other publications and Alaska’s media ecosystem as a whole.
But we also want to try to do some things differently. It’s no secret, for example, that the news business has had a tough go in the past two decades. The Press will test some methods to counteract industry trends, including partnering with a nonprofit to raise tax-deductible donations for qualified purposes, such as public-interest reporting.
We also plan to make the Press a forum for people with nontraditional journalism or writing backgrounds to have their voices heard. And we are expecting to be a worker-governed and partially worker-owned business — because we want to give employees more of a voice in the organization than has been past practice in media.
We’ll share more about all these ideas, and our vision for the Press, in the coming weeks and months. If you feel excited or compelled by what you’ve heard here, one helpful thing you can do now, if you’re not already a paid Northern Journal member, is to become one now. All paid members will convert over to the Anchorage Press in the fall and start receiving print issues at that point. If you’re already a member and want to find another way to support us, you can buy a gift membership for a friend, or encourage your friends and loved ones to get their own.
I will say directly: We’re depending on reader support to get fully up and running — to help us make our first hires and lease office space. If you value Northern Journal and believe in what I’ve set out as our vision here, we could use your support. Beyond paid memberships, other options to engage — as an investor, writer or volunteer — are laid out on our new placeholder website.
You can also email me directly at nat[at]anchoragepress[dot]com if you have ideas, questions, feedback.
As for Northern Journal: This site will operate as a hybrid platform for the next few months, publishing both Northern Journal and Anchorage Press stories as we build up to the formal launch of the Press’ print product and digital site.
In the fall, Northern Journal will cease to exist as a standalone entity, and it’s fair to say that you won’t see the logo or byline as much. But it’s likely we will try to preserve some of its elements — potentially using it as a brand for a regular Press column from me or as a label for our environmental coverage.
I’m so grateful for everyone’s support, and hope you’ll stick around for this next chapter. Stay tuned.
Oh yeah, one more thing: We're throwing a little party to celebrate our announcement. It's from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday at Sakana off Benson Boulevard. Be there, or be square.
Correction: Metlakatla is farther north than some Aleutian towns, meaning that it is not the southernmost community in Alaska, as this post initially said.
