text: 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 , and the yukon - koyukuk census area in the united states state of alaska . it is the farthest north daily in the united states , and one of the farthest north in the world . 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 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 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 . overview the fairbanks daily news - miner is a morning newspaper published daily in the city of fairbanks in the u.s. state of alaska . because fairbanks is located at a latitude of 64 . 838 degrees north , the news - miner offices are located farther north than those of any other daily newspaper in north america . the newspaper has a daily circulation of between 9 , 000 and 12 , 500 copies ( sources vary ) , and a sunday circulation of about 18 , 000 . overall readership statistics are somewhat higher . the news - miner operates a web site , , which records roughly 250 , 000 unique visitors per year , according to alexa . the news - miner 's circulation area encompasses about 179 , 287 square miles ( 464 , 351 km2 ) 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 . 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 alaska dispatch news , a daily newspaper based 260 miles ( 418 km ) south , in anchorage . 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 ( 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 . the news - miner produces several specialty publications in addition to the regular paper . two publications : latitude 65 , a weekly arts supplement released on friday ; 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 . 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 15 miles north of the spot where barnette 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 pack horse 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 ... " 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 . 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 . 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 . on january 10 , 1910 , the tanana tribune was absorbed by the news - miner . the owners of the tribune received shares in the news - miner ( which were later bought back by thompson ) , and one of the tribune 's owners received its printing plant , which was moved to tacoma , washington . 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 . thompson 's return coincided with a series of small gold discoveries at and that boosted the fairbanks economy , as gold - seekers bought supplies in the town . thompson still wished to leave alaska , however , and in 1915 , he sold a majority share of news - miner stock on option to o.p. gaustad , a republican party booster . scandal erupted when it was revealed that gaustad was merely a stand - in for james 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 his role as publisher . later that year , republican interests took over the fairbanks times , which had leaned toward the democratic party . the new owners of the times were unable to come up with financing for new equipment , however , and the times went out of business in october 1916 . following the discontinuation of the times , the alaska weekly citizen shifted to a daily publication schedule . this lasted until 1920 , when a fire destroyed the citizen 's printing plant . the news - miner printed the two papers in conjunction for a time — both mastheads appeared on the same paper — but after the citizen was unable to obtain loans to rebuild , the news - miner assumed its subscription list and business contracts and it became the sole daily newspaper in fairbanks . tough times in may 1920 , the spanish 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 . two years later , thompson and the news - miner strongly protested the city 's order to evict the prostitutes living in a regulated district within fairbanks . on september 24 , 1922 , thompson reported that the news - 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 . the decline of fairbanks ' economy was partially offset by the construction of the alaska railroad , and the arrival of president warren g. harding to dedicate the railroad in 1923 . harding visited the news - miner offices and set a small bit of type for a special edition commemorating the visit . 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 the news - miner were delivered regularly by aircraft to remote mining camps and roadhouses . in the process , the news - miner became the first newspaper to regularly deliver via aircraft . three years after harding 's death , william thompson died on january 4 , 1926 . he was replaced by assistant editor 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 . the paper still relied on an old flatbed press , which dated from the turn of the century . 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 . 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 , the news - 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 . bob bartlett in 1927 , nordale hired a recent university of alaska fairbanks graduate named bob bartlett . 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 to anthony 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 . lathrop era in october 1928 , the news - 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 , the news - miner was purchased by austin e. lathrop , an alaska industrialist . though lathrop promised to inject money into the news - miner , his strong republican leanings opposed those of nordale , a confirmed democrat . nordale resigned in april 1930 and was replaced by bernard stone . stone and lathrop turned the news - miner profitable before stone was replaced by charles r. settlemier in 1936 . in 1935 , the news - 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 , the news - miner was preparing to move into the new lathrop building , built by and named after the newspaper 's owner . as the great 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 the alaska miner as a weekly supplement to the news - miner . the miner covered happenings in the gold - mining camps outside fairbanks and was focused on areas outside the city . in 1939 , fairbanks radio station was founded , and it shared the lathrop building with the news - miner , which occupied the bottom floors of the building . in january 1941 , a disagreement between settlemier , one of his reporters , and the editor of the alaska miner resulted in several changes to the news - miner . settlemier was replaced as editor by the reporter , david b. tewkesbury , and the alaska miner was discontinued . its editor , e.f. jessen , created jessen 's weekly , a separate newspaper , to compete with the news - miner . the weekly lasted until 1968 , when it was closed by the internal revenue service . the same year that jessen founded his weekly newspaper , the united states became involved in the second world war . travel to and from alaska was restricted , and after japan invaded the alaska islands of attu and kiska , the news - miner was censored by the u.s. army . fairbanks benefited from a military construction boom as the united states built the northwest staging route to ferry lend - lease aircraft to the soviet union . the boom left the news - miner short - staffed , but it continued operations throughout the war . just before the japanese surrender that ended the war , news - miner editor david tewkesbury died . he was replaced by art bremer , a reporter . the post - war boom caused a sudden shortage of newsprint , as paper mills were not able to meet the demand of a growing number of newspapers nationwide . this shortage caused the news - miner to run short until lathrop used his industrial connections to divert a shipment from a newspaper that was going out of business . the post - war years also saw the news - miner take a more active role in territorial politics . prior to the 1948 election , lathrop believed republican presidential candidate thomas dewey would handily defeat democratic incumbent harry truman . to take advantage of the anticipated governmental shift , lathrop instructed the news - miner to ramp up its pro - republican editorials . in order to assist that process , he appointed william strand , a war correspondent for the chicago tribune , as the news - miner 's new editor . though truman won the 1948 election , the news - miner stayed politically active in endorsing republican candidates and issues . this ended only with lathrop 's death on july 26 , 1950 . snedden era one week before lathrop 's death , he negotiated the sale of the news - miner to charles willis " bill " snedden . 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 the news - miner and recommended about $ 100 , 000 in upgrades . lathrop was unwilling to spend that much on the newspaper , and 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 . one of snedden 's first actions was to the paper 's stance on alaska statehood . lathrop and the news - 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 . the news - miner continually published editorials in favor of statehood , and encouraged other newspapers across the u.s. to do the same . in 1955 and 1956 , when the alaska constitutional convention took place at the university of alaska fairbanks , the news - miner set up special telephone lines from the convention chambers to the newspaper 's office . daily reports were printed , recording the delegates ' progress . the news - miner strongly supported the political campaign for statehood until 1959 , when alaska became the 49th state of the united states . on the day the u.s. congress voted to have alaska admitted as a state , snedden arranged for a u.s. air force jet to fly copies of the news miner , the anchorage times , and other alaska newspapers to washington , d.c. on the morning after the vote , each congressman had an alaska newspaper proclaiming statehood . snedden also embarked on a series of upgrades to the news - miner 's printing equipment . in 1953 , rotary printing was introduced to fairbanks after snedden purchased a used rotary press from the sacramento union . to house the press , snedden built a two - story building adjacent to the lathrop building . the lathrop building still contained most of the news - 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 , the news - miner produced its first full - color newspaper . 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 . in 1954 , the news - 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 the news - miner . on november 23 , 1957 , tragedy struck when the lathrop building caught on fire . 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 . the news - 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 . in 1964 , the largest earthquake ever recorded in the united states struck anchorage and southern alaska , cutting communications to the outside world . the quake was felt in fairbanks , and it took 40 minutes for communications to be re - established with the associated press office in seattle . when the connection was restored , the news - miner sent the first reports of the earthquake to the outside world . the quake also destroyed the offices of the anchorage times , the leading newspaper in that city . the news - miner offered its press facilities to the times , and the two papers shared a masthead as anchorage recovered from the tremor . shortly before the earthquake , the news - miner placed an order for a modern offset 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 above the 100 - year flood line . this fact saved the news - 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 the anchorage times reciprocated the post - earthquake favor by publishing the news - miner 's masthead on its editions and posting occasional stories from fairbanks until electrical power was restored to the town . in the early 1970s , prior to the construction of the trans - alaska pipeline , the fairbanks economy was unsteady . the news - miner planned to expand its printing plant , but many in the company were unsure if the economy could support the added capacity . over the objections of the news - 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 that alyeska pipeline company rented several news - miner offices in the newly expanded building . about this time , the news - miner replaced its associated press with a satellite connection . medianews group era in the late 1980s and early 1990s , snedden created a plan to let the paper 's employees buy the company and keep ownership local . 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 the internet , led to a decision to sell the news - miner to dean singleton and richard scudder , co - founders of the medianews group newspaper chain . in order to preserve the paper 's independence — something desired by snedden — the news - miner was purchased by the family trusts of the two men , with ownership split 50 / 50 between the two trusts . chuck gray , the last publisher of the paper under snedden 's ownership ( he served from 1989 – 1992 ) , was retained as publisher emeritus in an advisory capacity . paul massey was named the first publisher of the post - snedden era . he was replaced by marilyn romano in 2003 . romano took a job with alaska airlines in 2011 as regional vice president kathryn became the interim publisher / general manager . in 2014 , veteran newspaper executive marti buscaglia was named publisher . though the news - miner is owned separately from the rest of the medianews group newspapers , it is considered a part of the group in order to take advantage of bulk purchasing discounts . the news - miner owns the kodiak daily mirror . back to the in january 2016 , the news - miner was sold to the helen e. snedden foundation . fuller cowell was named publisher . sourdough jack since 1952 , the news - 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 from news - 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 . " sourdough jack 's name came from ryan 's nickname ( jack ) and the traditional nickname given to an old miner ( sourdough ) . jack ryan worked for the seattle post - intelligencer later in his life . john ryan changed his name in the 70 's to john o 'ryan . 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 a politically correct tone , except on occasion . after the sept . 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 . awards and accomplishments in its history , the news - miner has been awarded dozens of accolades by the alaska press club and other organizations . in 1986 , news - miner reporter stan jones was awarded a george polk award for writing a story that led to impeachment proceedings against alaska governor bill sheffield . in 2009 , the paper won several commendations from the alaska press club for photography , sportswriting , features writing , and other accomplishments .