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.
If you listen closely, you can hear the echoes resonating from the decline of legacy media.
They alienated many of the people who do not want to read the paper online. Many of those people did not switch to digital nor did they keep a 2 day a week subscription. Sure some older people will switch but younger people aren’t going to pay for a digital subscription when they can get free news (if they even care) elsewhere. Of course it didn’t grow as well as he expected.
As if they were re-arranging deck chairs on the Titanic. It will be a grand day when the ADN goes down in flames for the last time.
Grander: makes a dramatic shift toward the center, rather than being the Pravda of Alaska.
Binkley uses ChatGPT to write going away letters like a boss.
Ask yourself what Andy and David’s departure has to do with Kyle and Rebecca splitting up…
What is the ADN again anyway? Sad to see what has been done to newspapers in Alaska. It was always going to be tough but their race to irrelevance has been breathtaking.
Liberalism– sooner or later– destroys everything it embraces, including the newspaper industry …
Too much of the ADN’s news content is taken straight from the slanted Washington Post. I once exchanged emails with Hulen to explain my unwillingness to subscribe to a paper that regurgitates the progressive and/or deep state biases and propaganda, not to mention the ADN’s endorsements of politicians such as Obama. The paper’s editorial stances have not reflected the political and social values of most of us Alaskans, I told Hulen, so “Why should I support the ADN?” With that, our email conversation came to an end, and I have continued to read my news in the WSJ, Breitbart, NYPost, Powerlinepost, and MRAK. These news publishers may have a ‘slanted’ perspective as well, but at least they do not reside in the jock strap of the Democratic National Committee.
Remember editor Howard Weaver? When I was president of RTL, Ed Wassell and myself had a 30 minute interview. I asked for balanced prolife coverage, and this was during the Clinton years. He said, “What do you mean? We keep a fine balance.” I told him, “Let’s gauge the number of lines given to pro-abort v. pro-life quotes.” We agreed to not analyze subjective adjectives that described pro-aborts are “courageous” and pro-lifers as “fierce”, just the number of lines. In the days before the internet, I kept sending him abortion-related articles via mail. They were running 8:1, in favor of abortion. He made a few weak replies for a while, then ended the correspondence.
It sounds a lot like the Democratic Party congratulating itself for Biden’s terrific four years and awarding medals to Cheney, Hillary & Soros. Oh, I forgot — the ADN stands for Alaska Democratic News.
Just wondering … since they have tried everything else, imagine if the ADN became a conservative newspaper. Maybe subscriptions would go up?
Sample headlines:
“Alaskans Awaits Repeal of Carbon Sequestration”
“Gov. Dunleavy: You Can Stop RCV and Prop 1!”
“Federal Gov Continues to Suppress Alaskan Economy”
And with graphic color photos: “Alaskans Angry as Legislature Refuses to Defund Planned Parenthood!”
But Binkley lives in Fairbanks, with the rest of the Binkleys. Keeping 300 miles from your lousy rag has its benefits.
Alaska oil ant gas workers and the state government workers need a pro oil and gas newspaper so Alaska can prosper under new leadership that rejects the big green scam that killed oil and gas growth in Alaska, I hope the future will be better for Alaska oil and gas productivity and prosperity, Happy New Year to all.
Drill Baby Drill
Reorganize for the coming shut down.
I can’t wait for adn to crash. That’s what happens when you print junk and lies.
Bye bye adn
The ADN is a pimple on the posterior of legacy Alaska news sources. The slanted approach they have taken since the 90s is finally driving the doors closed.
I long for the day that the ADN finally stops its death spiral and truly dies.
Time to close the doors on this outdated dinosaur!!!
ADN deserves the toilet, always has.