Anchorage Times

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Anchorage Times was a daily newspaper published in Anchorage, Alaska that became known for the pro-business political stance of longtime publisher and editor, Robert Atwood. Competition from the McClatchy-owned Anchorage Daily News forced it out of business in 1992.

1 History
2 Known Editors
3 External links
4 See also

[edit] History

The Anchorage Times began as the daily Cook Inlet Pioneer, first published on June 5, 1915. The U.S. Postal Service had just designated the village (population c. 2,000) as "Anchorage", but the name was not yet widely accepted. On May 24, 1916, the paper renamed itself the Anchorage Daily Times and Cook Inlet Pioneer. On May 29, 1917, it became the Anchorage Daily Times.

[edit] Robert Atwood

In 1935, Robert Atwood purchased the paper, which at that time had a circulation of 650. He assumed the editorship, a position he would hold until 1990.

During the war years, Anchorage's population swelled from less than 8,000 to over 43,000, overtaking Fairbanks as Alaska's largest city, and making the Times Alaska's largest daily newspaper.

In 1947, Alaska territorial governor Ernest Gruening appointed Atwood to chair the Alaska Statehood Committee. In Atwood's hands, the Anchorage Daily Times was to become a prominent voice for statehood.

[edit] Competition

A rival, the Anchorage Daily News, began publishing in 1948. Although initially more of an editorial challenge than a competitive threat, the contest would influence the course of both newspapers over the next few decades.

In 1974, the Times and the Daily News entered into a joint operating agreement in order to reduce costs. Later that year, the Times would begin issuing a Sunday edition. The Daily News had been publishing Sundays since 1965.

The Anchorage Daily Times was renamed the Anchorage Times in 1976.

In 1977, the Daily News filed suit against the Times, claiming violations of the joint operating agreement. The papers reached an out-of-court settlement in 1978, and the agreement was terminated in 1979. In the short term, this was a setback for the struggling Daily News, which was compelled to seek outside investors. The Sacramento-based McClatchy newspaper chain, bought the Daily News that same year.

McClatchy's investment fueled an all-out circulation war. By 1984, readership of the Times had fallen behind that of the Daily News.

In an interview with the Alaska Journal of Commerce [1], Times editor and assistant publisher, Bill Tobin, traced the paper's ultimate failure to the late '80s, and to publisher Robert Atwood's resistance of the morning format. The Times remained an afternoon paper, whereas the Daily News had been publishing a morning edition since 1964.

[edit] Veco and the Voice of the Times

In 1989, Atwood sold the Times to Veco International, an oilfield service company seeking to invest its profits from the clean-up efforts following the Exxon Valdez oil spill.

The new management was not able to turn the paper around, and after two and a half years and claimed losses of $10 million, a decision was made to shut down operations. The paper's assets were sold to McClatchy, and the last issue of the Anchorage Times was published on June 3, 1992.

A ten-year deal was inked to maintain the editorial voice of the defunct paper by way of a half-page "Voice of the Times" section opposite the Daily News editorial page. In 2002, this deal was renewed for another five years.