The leftist Anchorage Press, which has provided alternative news and facts on a weekly basis for decades, has quit publication of its newsprint edition and packed up its offices in downtown Anchorage. It’s going online only.
The managing editor announced the end of the publication to freelancers and online on Saturday, saying that the parent company, Wick Communications, which also owns the Frontiersman, is having financial hardships, and that readers are increasingly consuming news online, requiring the business model to adapt.
Wick is a family-owned small media company with newspapers, websites, magazines, and specialty publications in 11 states, including Arizona, Alaska, Colorado, Idaho, Louisiana, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota and Washington. Co-owner and publisher Bob Wick died in June, 2022 and the company continues on under the leadership of his brother Walter Wick. It is headquartered in Sierra Vista, Arizona.
The weekly tabloid-style newspaper was dedicated to supporting Democrats, and equally criticizing conservatives, and it made its main living promoting entertainment in Anchorage. During the administration of Mayor Ethan Berkowitz, the paper sought to protect the wayward mayor, who ended up resigning.
During that era, the newspaper characterized Must Read Alaska and a Facebook group known as Save Anchorage in a wildly inaccurate story about a plot to overthrow the mayor.
In the past few months it has mainly run free content from the leftist online newsgroup, the Alaska Beacon, in addition to its entertainment listings and reviews. Its former managing editor Matt Hickman has left the state and signed up as a content provider for an online betting publication.
