A chain of newspapers serving rural Alaska will close.
Anchorage-based Calista, an Alaska Native corporation, announced Friday it was shutting down and liquidating Alaska Newspapers Inc.
CEO Andrew Guy says the board had to make a tough decision as a responsibility to the corporation’s 12,000 shareholders.
The weeklies in the chain include the Arctic Sounder, the Bristol Bay Times, the Cordova Times, the Dutch Harbor Fisherman, the
Tundra Drums and the Seward Phoenix Log. Also closing are the quarterly magazine First Alaskans and Camai Printing, an Anchorage printing house.
The last issues will be sometime in August.
The corporation says it will offer unemployment assistance counseling, severance packages and referral letters. Current employees will also have preferential status for openings within the corporation, if they are qualified for the job.
