about  /   archives  /   contact  /   subscribe  /   twitter    
Share this entry
Make this entry better

What are we missing? Is there a key link we skipped, or a part of the story we got wrong?

Let us know — we’re counting on you to help Encyclo get better.

Put Encyclo on your site
Embed this Encyclo entry in your blog or webpage by copying this code into your HTML:

Key links:
Primary website:
alaskadispatch.com
Primary Twitter:
@alaskadispatch

Editor’s Note: Encyclo has not been regularly updated since August 2014, so information posted here is likely to be out of date and may be no longer accurate. It’s best used as a snapshot of the media landscape at that point in time.

Alaska Dispatch a for-profit online newsmagazine that covers state and local issues in Alaska. It also owns the Anchorage Daily News.

The site was founded by Tony Hopfinger and Amanda Coyne in 2008. Alice Rogoff, former CFO of U.S. News & World Report, became its majority owner in 2009. The site has an editorial staff of about 12, along with a sales staff of three.

Alaska Dispatch announced it would buy the Anchorage Daily News, Alaska’s largest newspaper, from McClatchy in April 2014 for $34 million. Most of that price was for the paper’s office building, which Rogoff said she planned to sell soon after the deal was closed. Rogoff became the Daily News’ publisher, and Hopfinger took over as editor of the newly merged newsroom. Most of the top newsroom spots were filled by Dispatch journalists, while many of the business-side positions remained with the Daily News.

The site publishes numerous articles from contributors, giving some of them handheld cameras to record videos. It also runs a citizen-driven site called Tundra Telegraph. Rogoff had said the goal was for the Dispatch to be profitable by 2011, driven largely by an aggressive advertising strategy, but the Dispatch operated at a loss through 2014.

Peers, allies, & competitors:
Recent Nieman Lab coverage:
April 10, 2014 / Ken Doctor
The newsonomics of 50/50 and the unchaining of the U.S. press — Asked last week whether he was buying the Star Tribune for business or altruistic reasons, Glen Taylor said a lot in a two-word answer: “50/50.” News observers have parsed and poked at every recent big buy ov...
Oct. 18, 2010 / Laura McGann
Online journalist cuffed in Alaska explains his biz model — When I talked with the editor of a startup news site in Alaska, Tony Hopfinger, last week, he told me his business model is based on cultivating an audience inside the Frontier State, while still writing stories with a n...

Recently around the web, from Mediagazer:

Primary author: Mark Coddington. Main text last updated: May 15, 2014.
Make this entry better
How could this entry improve? What's missing, unclear, or wrong?
Name (optional)
Email (optional)
Explore: Reuters
Reuters logo

Reuters is an international financial information provider and news wire service. Reuters is the media division of the Canadian information company Thomson Reuters. Reuters was founded in 1851 and owned by the Reuters Company until its 2008 sale to Thomson. Reuters is headquartered in London, though Thomson Reuters has headquarters in New York City. Reuters…

Put Encyclo on your site
Embed this Encyclo entry in your blog or webpage by copying this code into your HTML:

Encyclo is made possible by a grant from the Knight Foundation.
The Nieman Journalism Lab is a collaborative attempt to figure out how quality journalism can survive and thrive in the Internet age.
Some rights reserved. Copyright information »