Mark Sabbatini, who has covered politics for the Juneau Empire on and off for years, is the new managing editor of the Juneau Empire.
He takes over for Ben Hohenstatt, who served as editor for five years and now will work in state government in Juneau as an employee for the State Ombudsman’s office.
Sabbatini first came to the Empire in the 1990s to cover the legislative beat. He ventured to Antarctica and was the publisher of The Antarctic Sun, a newspaper covering science and life in Antarctica, and then went on to arctic Norway, where he spent 13 years editing the alternative weekly called Icepeople in Svalbard. He was forced to leave when his health took a turn for the worse.
Sabattini returned to Juneau in 2022 and started up again at the Empire, where he had become Sunday editor in his prior stint. The Empire has recently become nearly an all-online publication. Print editions of the paper only come out twice a week and are printed in Tacoma, Washington, and delivered by mail to those who still get the newsprint edition.
