Alaska’s largest newspaper has a new leader.
The Anchorage Daily News announced this week that Vicky Ho would be stepping into the editor role, following the retirement of longtime editor David Hulen.
Ho has worked at the paper since 2015 in various editorial roles, most recently as the managing editor. She told Alaska Public Media’s Wesley Early that she got her start in journalism in college, working for the University of Texas Daily Texan student newspaper.
This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Vicky Ho: It was really close to what a professional working newsroom is like. We had nightly deadlines. I remember having to send pages to the printers. We printed through the Austin American-Statesman at the time, sending pages to the printers in the middle of the night. You know, you're there until 1 a.m., 2a.m. Brutal, brutal hours, but maybe pretty well-oriented to a college student's lifestyle. And that work just kind of stuck with me, the impact of that, and just that sense of mission and the pressure of trying to serve our audiences every day. So I applied to different jobs, and I was eventually hired as a copy editor and page designer at a daily newspaper in Northwest Colorado. It's called the Steamboat Pilot & Today in Steamboat Springs. And I learned a lot in that job. So I was there for about three-and-a-half years, and kind of worked my way up to being the evening editor there. And when I was ready to move on to another news organization, I thought: What kinds of things do I want in my life? What kind of place do I really want to work in? What kind of newsroom environment? What are the journalistic ambitions that might be, you know, drawing me to another place? I saw an opening at the Anchorage Daily News. The newspaper was looking for a copy editor and page designer, so I thought, “I'll give this a shot.” I've never been to Alaska before. I've never been to Anchorage before. And it's really worked out. My job here has evolved so much, you know, from working on the evening copy desk to being the night homepage editor, then the deputy editor online, then managing editor, and now finally the editor, which is a kind of a wild journey,
Wesley Early: I know that now for mainstream news outlets like the Anchorage Daily News, there's kind of a two-pronged challenge. You mentioned that financially, it's not as viable. It's harder to get people to support, but also you're competing with news outlets that are less independent, maybe more politically motivated, sometimes people just who have misinformation. How do you foresee working through that in your new role?
VH: I try to think of people and where people are getting their information from, and why. If they're not getting information from us or from Alaska Public Media or Alaska’s News Source, or if they're turning to other sources of news, I'm really interested in why. And you know, I think part of it is that our information landscape is so fragmented. I think that a core part of this speaks to trust, and maybe there are people in our community who don't feel seen or heard or they feel dismissed. I think that trust is just so core to what we do as journalists and how we serve our communities. And, you know, in most cases, I don't think I would ever just write someone off for feeling a particular way or believing a certain thing. I think that our beliefs and where we turn to for information and how we treat each other, that's all coming from a place of what we care about, what we're afraid of, what we're worried about, what our concerns are. I just want to know those people a little bit more, and I want to know where they're coming from, and I want to understand them.
WE: As you take on this new role, what is your vision for the future of the Anchorage Daily News?
VH: I think for the ADN, there's such a long history of really high quality, impactful journalism, and you know, it's a news organization that… we've been around for a long time. I think this is such a great opportunity for a reset in some ways, and not like blowing the thing up and rebuilding it, but, you know, really taking stock of where we are and what we're doing and how we want to move forward with the journalism that we're doing. How we can do work that is still very impactful? How we can do work that is reflective of the community? How we can do work that, you know, resonates with our communities and serves them? We're long past the time where a news organization can be everything to everybody. And I think we, all of us, just need to figure out, what can we do well? What can we do that others aren't as well equipped to do? And just lean into our strengths. I think more journalism in Alaska is only a good thing, and I can get really excited when I think about how can we all work together to improve the news landscape and media landscape around the state.
