Anchorage Daily News

Anchorage Daily News

The Anchorage Daily News is the most popular and most widely read daily newspaper in Anchorage, Alaska. The Anchorage Daily News has over four hundred fulltime employees that are responsible for the circulation of approximately over 7,200 daily and more than 8,000 on Sundays.

The Anchorage Daily News is the recipient of two "Pulitzer Prize" (considered as the highest honor in journalism). One on 1976 for the series that revealed the effects of the "International Brotherhood of Teamsters" (one of the largest labor union in the United States of America) on the economy and politics of the state of Alaska. And the other on 1989 for the "A People in Peril" series; which was about the high level of suicide, alcoholism and despair in the population of Alaska.

The Anchorage Daily News made its debut by publishing its first issue on the 13th of January 1946. However the Anchorage Daily News developed into an afternoon daily on May 1948 and the Anchorage Daily News then switched into a morning newspaper on the 13th of April 1964 and would not circulate Sunday issues until the 13th of June 1965. Norman Brown was the Anchorage Daily News' first publisher and by then the Anchorage Daily News was produced by a Linotype manually fed press (Linotype was the world's leading maker of newspaper and book typesetting equipments). At that time the Anchorage Daily News was only circulated and distributed on newsstands and through the post office.

By 1974, a "Joint Operating Agreement" was then signed with "The Anchorage Times" because the Daily News was steadily failing financially. The Anchorage Times and the Anchorage Daily News were locked on a competitive struggle before the Joint Operating Agreement was signed. In 1976 the Anchorage Daily News sued The Anchorage Times. The Daily News claimed that the Anchorage Times had violated the Joint Operating Agreement between them. The Anchorage Times then filed a countersuit. The Anchorage Daily and the Anchorage Times then came into an out-of-court settlement on September of 1978 after a long arbitration.

The Anchorage Times decided to shut down on June of 1992 after an intense and extensive struggle for circulation and advertising. However, the editorial of Anchorage Times was preserved by the Anchorage Daily, giving the editors of the Anchorage Times a half page each day on the Anchorage Daily's opinion/editorial section. This kind of arrangement was unique in the history of American newspaper.
By 1985 the Anchorage Daily was awarded fifty awards by the Society of Newspaper Design by which placing it third in the world. The Anchorage Daily then launched its online version www.adn.com on 1996 and a second website (www.alaska.com) on the year 2000. At present, the Anchorage Daily News continues to grow and has increased circulation, winning numerous awards.