No News is Bad News for Rural Alaska
By AlaskaPi
Parent corporation Calista is closing and liquidating their Alaska Newpapers, Inc subsidiary.
While we understand the business decision, we are sad that these newspapers will no longer be available for news of rural Alaska within their communities, and for the rest of the state.
We are in a time of change all over America regarding news, news collection, news delivery, and news organizations which are all struggling.
There are endless essays and conversations about whether this is good, bad , or both, as well as discussions of the causes, such as the effect of the internet on the base of advertisers and subscribers.
Today, none of that means much.
The loss of ANI , even the small operation that it is, will leave a gaping hole in information from huge portions of the state currently available to us all here in Alaska.
The food and fuel crisis in Western Alaska in the winter of 2008-2009 was eventually fairly well covered, but until ANI published Mr Tucker’s letter in January, a number of warnings in the broader news world had been largely ignored by Alaskans and their government.
The blogging community in Alaska hopped on the story, as did the Alaska Dispatch (which reprinted an ANI story as well as reported on it’s own ) and eventually the Anchorage Daily News.
Our neighbors in Western Alaska received some much needed assistance, the issues which contributed to the crisis got some scrutiny from our government (although overdue, and still not nearly enough), and we ended up with a broader scope of news sources for rural Alaskan issues. The most notable of these are Kyle Hopkins’ Rural Blog at the ADN , and the expansion of coverage by the Alaska Dispatch.
Some say blogs can, do, and will fill some of the gaps left by the loss and dilution of traditional news sources. Alaska’s bloggers did make a difference in how far and how fast the news traveled that winter, most notably AKM’s work on The Mudflats.
AKM’s remark –“The conversation is not over yet. Voices that have not been heard for a long time have far to travel,” resonates as much today as it did in January, 2009.
Writing Raven at Alaska Real wrote many, many posts which set issues we need to deal with right out on the table, as well as the need to allow more voices to be heard, truly heard, and not stuffed in a folder to look at later :
Phil Munger at Progressive Alaska wrote over and over again of fisheries management issues and related problems which affect rural Alaska with an eye towards broadening knowledge, action, and discussion in this state :
Reading through the coverage of this in the establishment press, in comments to those articles, and on the blogs, it appears that we’ve only scratched the surface of how to help the hardy people in Alaska’s most impoverished census district – Wade Hampton – survive and thrive through the unnerving changes our new century seems to have so many of in abundance.
Here at Anonymous Bloggers ,we have made a number of runs at what Ugavic calls “information sharing”- from sharing details of everyday life in the bush, far from road systems , energy grids, and sometimes even a store for groceries, to sharing information about how fish and game management, state and federal, affects the people who live with the decisions. At whatever level we have added to, or encouraged knowledge of Bush Alaska which adds to conversations about what to do, we have succeeded at our “bloggerly” aims.
However, nothing we do here can take the place of real reporting by qualified, trained, seasoned reporters such as Alex DeMarban, or Margaret Bauman of ANI. We will miss them greatly. We hope they and all other ANI staff find well-paying, decent jobs. We have selfish hopes that we will , very soon, see those bylines appear elsewhere on rural focused stories in other publications.
We will miss ANI’s focus on rural Alaska and hope the gap it will leave can and will be filled.
” Voices that have not been heard for a long time …” need a vehicle to travel the distance.
Cross-posted from Anonymous Bloggers
TLC Adds Wasilla Hair Salon to Fall Lineup
http://www.ktva.com/home/outbound-xml-feeds/TLC-Adds-Wasilla-Hair-Salon-to-Fall-Lineup-126546888.html
Just a very innocent question, not really having a clue —
Do y’all think that Alaska Dispatch could help fill in this void? I know they’re web-based, but if they concentrated even more on the rural communities, it could be a big help.
So sad to see our paper-based papers going down. That was my major in college — journalism/copy editing.
sigh..’journey.’
Words..are not dead. The way we all access them..changed, is changing..will change. Out in the edges of this valley..are folks who saw/considered/created..a new way of creating stoves..for peoples in areas of the world..who had a terriblly urgent need for a heating/cooking..unit..almost free..and to utilize..the bits and pieces of wood, or grasses..avail. Voila..new..free stove designs..then..actual stoves..being made..by the peoples who needed them..so desperately. So it is..with comp. tech..and computers. Give me a motivated human..and a pile of garbage ..good people..and I’ll show you the next..Bill Gates. Hop to it folks..hop to it. Any crisis..is ..a gift of great value. Study it closely..and then..revel in the jounrney. 🙂
You all know that not everyone has computers, fancy phones. It’s a community thing to gather with the paper.
This is ultimately the beginning of the end of print media.
nem
Excellent piece, Alaska Pi — you deserve a piece of pie 🙂
I’m grateful that we have Anonymous Bloggers, as well as other rural blogs, reporting what’s happening out there.
Thank you, alaskapi, for taking the time and energy to unselfishly address issues that should be important to all Alaskans. You always write from your heart and share your wisdom in ways that educate the rest of us, and for that, I’m appreciative and truly thankful. Keep writing, and we’ll keep reading. And, thank you, AKM, for cross-posting from the Anonymous Bloggers website.
This isn’t just the bush newspapers that are being affected by this; the Seward Phoenix Log and the Valdez newspaper are also part of the list of papers that are slated to go away. All of these newspapers have different histories and roles in their communities. This is causing a big loss for many communities.
Hopefully the loss of these papers will instead of closing down news from more rural areas open up new opportunities.
As has happened in the past, most noteably when these newspapers were not owned by a larger corperation, small business people will give it a try. Something tells me it will not be too many years and there will be an effort to fill the gap.
It is a big loss to the rural areas of the state but there might well be some hope in there for the future.
I have an extended family member who runs a small newspaper and it is his desire to share the more ‘local’ news with his neighbors and others that has kept him in business over 20 years. It is a struggle but due to his hard work he has a number of businesses that help support him as he helps support them.
Hopefully this will happen to help fill the gap. I also wish the hard working writers good seearching for a ‘place to land’ that will keep their skills working to report rural AK news!!
Oh worry not..I am one who makes a habit, of making ..’Fox-Paws’..jus alla the time…. 😉
DH and I have instantaneous and full access to the world via our cable TV and the Internet — our mobile phones are also totally web capable. With the very rare exception of a storm knocking out power for an hour or two and/or our provider’s server experiencing a glitch for a bit, we have complete access to information via *all* of these delivery systems, 24/7/365.
We also subscribe to our town’s newspaper. Six days a week, Tuesday thru Saturday, we get information about every thing and any thing from what roads will be closed for repair, to who made the honor roll, to what time the school play will start and the cost to attend, to updates on progress for our Greenway project along the river. We also get a brief re-cap of world news; local obituaries, births, and weddings; how our local Boys and Girls Club sports teams are doing; sudoku and crossword puzzles; letters to the editor; and etc.
Folks think DH and I are daft for subscribing to the physical paper when we could just go online and get local news from the paper’s website. The subscription, though, is an ‘indulgence’ we both enjoy — it allows us access to more information than is on their website…and it helps keep, we like to think, the paper in operation.
Which brings me to two things:
1) I ran across this quote from Anias Nin today: “We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are,” and,
2) My face is flushed red from embarassment over being so damned naïve re: what *I* take for granted and project on to others.
All this by way of saying: Thank you AlaskaPi for your wonderful article and additional comments, and I See Villages From My House, Ann Strongheart, JuneauDream, and Writing from Alaska, for your comments. They all go to the point that what *I* was layering on to my rural AK mudpeeps, is *not* what their reality is; just because I have the access I do to news and information, that does NOT mean all my AK family does! Thank you all for reminding me of that fact…although I’m still mighily embarassed that I needed reminding in the first place. beth.
beth- you mustn’t feel embarressed 🙂
I make faux pas of that sort everytime I’m away from Alaska.
It is a lifelong chore to see things as they are.
I like that quote a great deal.
There are other excellent news sources but so many are shaky beyond their home base areas – whether it’s power outages, slow or non-existent “tubes”
My Regional Corporation started the KBC
“The mission of Koahnic Broadcast Corporation is to be the leader in bringing Native voices to Alaska and the nation. ”
http://www.koahnicbroadcast.org/index.html
I am hundreds of miles from any ability to receive it though I do use streaming audio sometimes to catch stories- an ability many in rural Alaska do not have.
One of my favorites is out of Bethel but there again I use podcast .
http://kyuk.org
You are correct, there were many problems with the corporate oversight of ANI as a subsidiary.
I am glad to see it said.
I once requested and got contact info from one reporter that I knew pained that person to share as the contacts were voices which the Regional wanted ignored or lost in the shuffle and so could put that person in a bind with the Reg.
This kind of thing affects all news sources at some level or other. It is better to talk about it than not.
Though I am sorry to see ANI go under, I was always uncomfortable with the lack of a critical reporting on their owner company, Calista. The regional Native corporation was notoriously withholding on pertinent information that shareholders had a right to know, ask about, question or challenge. Ironically, it took a personal sex scandal to remove a man who controlled their information with an iron fist and failed to deliver dividends despite their extraordinary 8(a) contract awards over the last 8 or so years.
But I digress. At the height of ‘vetting’ an unknown freshman Governor from Alaska, telegentic with an impressive Frontier Woman narrative – Sarah Palin as a VP running-mate brought about many interesting exchanges and brought the State of our State to the forefront.
Gibson’s and Couric’s interviews speak for themselves about Sarah’s competency, but one exchange I always remembered and valued was brought up in response to her embarrassing inability to admit she read anything to expand her worldview or expose her to national and world issues and current affairs with Katie Couric.
Though it was a nightmare to have someone as unqualified as our Governor be so close to an unearned opportunity to run the country – many of us in the native community struggled to capitalize on such attention focused on our State, and at a much less extend, the struggles of Rural Alaska – essentially a third world country within an oil producing State.
How could we address the disparities that exist? We couldn’t get it through Sarah’s numbskull that earmarks are / were a necessity for our critical capital project needs to address our living conditions since the State never put in that kind of investment in before.
On Anderson Cooper’s AC360 program (http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2008/10/01/ac.palin.latest.cnn) guest Republican Strategist Bay Buchanan took Sarah clumsy evasion to Couric’s newspapers question by shifting attention away to the perception that people think “Alaska isn’t a foreign country where its kind of suggested that . . .wow, how can you keep in touch with what the rest of what Washington, D.C. may be thinking?”
So Bay took the torch and decided she was offended by the question because the ‘Media’ looks upon Alaska like its some sort of a Third World Nation. Yeah. It is.
The Right tried to spin an elitist Anti-Alaskan sentiment. I thought it funny that James Carville dismissed the lack of informational sources with what the Internet provides in this day and age. How easy is it to get sustained access or download technical applications in remote villages? It isn’t easy. Read people’s comments about GCI’s cell service and internet services out in the Bush. People struggle with long download times, slow servers and many common problems with limited or costly access to the Web.
Another AC360 story (http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2008/10/01/ac.palin.latest.cnn) had a reporter dispatched to Little Diomede to address Sarah famously saying you could see Russia from land in Alaska and by that token it somehow that gave her international experience. With no malice or political agenda, the Siberian Yup’ik simply said no Governor has ever set foot on their island or addressed their proximity and relationship with Russia. They also said they didn’t know she was on the national ticket because they do NOT get television news since there is no TV. The reporter did site that the poverty level was above 40% and had no running water and usually dump their trash bags directly into the sea – that will inevitably float over to Russia.
And now we can no longer count on locally produced papers which is so much more effective than spotty internet access. Blogs are great, but nothing beats a paper you can read on your lap.
Good luck to Bethel’s Delta Discovery, a native owned and run regionally distributed newspaper. I hope they up their output and breadth of coverage.
Villages —
I know what you mean when you talk about internet access. At our house, we finally gave up on dial-up; it just wouldn’t cut it. We got Hughes Net. But still, there are times when it cuts out or stalls. (I’m still glad we got it, though.)
Over here on the Upper Yukon, the only newspaper that covers our area is the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. (Unless it’s a humongous stand against NPS law enforcement and rights of subsistence users ….. then our little town makes national news.) There are only a few copies flown in here, and most people just visit their website when they want to read the news.
How can people actively participate in their state & federal governments if they can’t get accurate and timely information?
It is frightening to think people will become further disenfranchised by the lack of information about issues that will or could affect them. How will they know when, how or where to voice their concerns, support, or opposition?
This is why it so critical to have alternatives to corporate, business-oriented communications. The bottom line determines who can gain access to information which translate into knowledge, wisdom and as importantly, power to protect or transform one’s daily life and future.
I have been dismayed as both political and popular support has dwindled towards entities such as NPR, PBS and community-access media opportunities. It is far better for us all to have a healthy mix of private and public (government) supported media. It knits our society together with a common understanding of shared information and insights. How can a society be successful unless there is a minimum threshold of shared cultural information and shared access to knowledge and power?
Rural Alaska is facing a dramatic cutoff of access. However, there is a similar, though less dramatic diminishing of access in urban and suburban areas as well as corporations are allowed to merge into or purge one another. America is once again facing a limited stream of information and, with the current political climate turning against public education, I fear for the future of our communities and our children and grandchildren. Will they be at the mercy of only a select few voices determining what they can learn, what they should know, and how they should think?
I am hopeful there will be a variety of media being reborn through the efforts of small-scale, local “pioneers” who recognize and are willing to rebuild a network of information-distribution (e.g. bloggers, local papers or even community information boards, etc.) to counterbalance the constriction of information dispersal we are beginning to experience, which, to me, is quite ironic as we have supposedly entered “the information age” and are told we are “overloaded” with information sources. I think we are merely allowing ourselves to become distracted by the flash of novelty and are therefore not paying attention to our basic infrastructure disintegration as regards unbiased information and learning opportunities.In our quest for the new and sparkly, we are forgetting about our basic needs. Without access, without the ability to access one another, we become weaker, not stronger.
I hope an alternative strong enough to knit together the widely strewn settlements will develop and thrive and that it is reflective of the people it serves and dedicated to their needs, not to just the bottom-line mentality that will by necessity, turn its back upon an entire region simply because it does not serve profit-driven goals.
There are at least 2 excellent local papers in the areas affected-
The Delta Discovery and the Nome Nugget.
The work ANI did to report locally had great value but their wider reach online allowed for information to jump the bounds normally seen here. We are so big and we are so few people, with so much attention focussed on ANC and the valley where most of the people are that most of the state has a hard time being heard. That is the larger loss.
Southeast Alaska has papers too but we have not a one which binds us together as a region with special cares and concerns.
There is a new online paper which has made some real effort to address rural Alaskan issues .
Would urge folks to support the effort there :
http://www.alaska-native-news.com/SubSection/Rural_News/Rural_News/385
It is new and off to a good start.
I hope it grows.
In Southeast we have local papers
Well said, ks sunflower, well said. Agree, totally. beth.
Perhaps it would be a good idea to work with Alaska Dispatch and ask them to expand their coverage, based on this — ??
I think their heart is in the right place.
Neva Reece the reporter who interviewed me from Indian Country today is doing an extensive article about this. She contacted me a couple days ago asking if I could suggest people in the bush to interview about how this will affect them.
I gave her a list of people to interview including Nick Tucker, Myron Naneng, the schools, and others. I told her about some specific things that would be affected by this loss ie: school sports: where are they going to report those activities now? Politics: now there will be even less information received in the bush about it! Legal Notices, Advertising, Opinion etc.
She told me yesterday that she had finished the story and that it would on the AVCP website exclusively. It should be up sometime soon or early next week.
I will be really interested to see what people in the bush are saying about this great loss of information for rural Alaskans!
Don’t you mean the Indian Country today website?
no she said it’s an exclusive for AVCP website
AVCP – as in Council of Village Presidents,
Or ICT as in Indian Country Today – ?
LOL ok I stand corrected. I guess there was a miscommunication when I was talking to her the other night. When she contacted me today for a quote for the article she indeed said it was for ICT!! Woulda swore she said AVCP but alas the story will appear on Indian Country Today probably on Monday!!
This is so sad. I have no solution, I just echo the wish that these writers get good, well-paid jobs elsewhere, while continuing to report what’s going on in the bush
One constant..’changes’..drifting in..like mist..or dropping down..on 4 feet..from a resting spot..on the limbs..over our trails. With the skys above..sporting an evergrowing..mass of ‘reflectors’..that will allow ..online communications..each must look toward the modern sounds/generators..to..carry important messages. Woodpecker here..skirts the edges of the tree..peeking at me..and then..going back to picking out..delicacys..from the riddled bark..and then..filled and ..thinking to..kill some time..off to larger trees..to dig/cut..and build new ‘tools of his trade’. The ..Thrummmm..sounds. It carrys..new news..as did the drum, then,..and the drumcircles now. We move..pulled by our eyes, then..by our ears..toward the dawning of..newness. Thrummm..old drum gone..we pick up new concretions of mineral, of tech. to shape the sounds..for..Tomorrow. It is..who we are..new..innovative..life forms…morn the beauty of..what was a tool of great value..yet..looking at how we can/may..move to..The Newness. Lose no time..mourning….transition..now..now…
Juneaudream, well said.There is a profound message in your poetic comment. We would do well to heed your words.
🙂 not everybody in the bush has access to or skills to use modern sound generators
Yes, so sad. So hard to believe there was no other solution and so unfortunate that a ‘business’ decision would impact the lives of so many people.