In a letter to the staff of the Anchorage Daily News, owner-publisher Ryan Binkley announced that Editor David Hulen is retiring and Publisher Andy Pennington is ‘moving on.’
In looking back over 2024, he said, “it was a mixed bag, but in the end we continued our forward progression, which is someting we can all be proud of.”
He said the newspaper is profitable and has 18,600 digital subscribers, but slower growth than he had expected.
Hulen has been with the newspaper for 38 years, spending the past nine as editor, Binkley said.
“I bet for all of us it’s kind of hard to imagine the ADN without David leading the newsroom. It’s also hard to overstate the impact David has had on this organization – and by extension on our community. We all know about the big things he’s done. He wrote on the ‘People in Peril’ series when ADN was awarded its second Pulitzer for public service, and he oversaw the ‘Lawless’ coverage when we won our third. He guided the newsroom through a metamorphosis caused by the bankruptcy and layoffs. He navigated the rise of Google, Facebook and Twitter and a litany of other technological and social shifts, each one of which required agility and a willingness to evolve. More importantly than those big things though, through all of the turmoil of the last seven years, he exuded a relentless steadiness that was the anchor in choppy seas. He is always calm, willing to out-work anyone, and cares so deeply about this paper and this place that he will do whatever it takes to ensure both are left better than he found them. David’s last day as Editor will be March 15th,” Binkley wrote.
Hulen became editor during the wild transition years after Alice Rogoff bought the newspaper from McClatchy and the entire thing ended up in bankruptcy.
Vicky Ho will serve as interim editor and the search is on for a permanent editor.
Pennington has been publisher for seven years and “has also decided it’s time for him to move on.
“If there was one single person (and there isn’t) who we can point to who dragged this company out of bankruptcy, it’s Andy. It’s not hyperbole to say that we wouldn’t all be here doing this work today if it wasn’t for Andy. I still can’t believe he accepted the job – moving his family to Alaska to run a bankrupt newspaper that was losing $8 million a year! It sounds like something parents would threaten their kids with if they didn’t get good grades. But one thing about Andy is that he is absolutely fearless before a challenge. When things don’t go right, something that happens quite a lot it seems, Andy always has a plan. He spends zero time wallowing in self- doubt or wondering if things will be ok – he is like a shark: he just keeps swimming forward,” Binkley wrote.
Binkley himself will step in as publisher in the day-to-day operations and has organized the business side of the newspaper, with Kea Cuaresma promoted to vice president of revenue nd community engagement.
“After a seven-year education as owner and President of the company, I’m excited to once again be close to the company and to be more involved in the day-to-day operations,” Binkley wrote. He mentioned nothing about the recent unionization of the newsroom and the expected tough negotiations ahead as the union was formed to demand higher salaries during a time when revenues are barely able to support the existing organization.
At the end of 2024, Tom Hewitt, the editorial page editor, resigned to take a government job with the New Democrat mayor of the Fairbanks North Star Borough.
