They won the Alaska newspaper giveaway. Then the pandemic arrived...

[DGUtley]

‘Our fates are going to be the same.’


They won the Alaska newspaper giveaway. Then the pandemic arrived.



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n 2019, Larry Persily, owner of the Skagway News, announced that he would give away his local Alaskan publication to a person or a pair demonstrating journalistic skill, self-motivation, grit, and—above all—affectionate dedication to the quirks and quiddities of rural small-town reporting. National news outlets picked up the story as a sort of lark, emphasizing the remote and small-town nature of Skagway, the rarity of the giveaway, and then, in a few short lines, the challenges of sustaining critical local news coverage. In such stories, Persily was a Willy Wonka figure, courting a successor.

Among the applicants were Melinda Munson and Gretchen Wehmhoff, teachers in the Anchorage area who cowrote a blog for Alaskan families. Munson and Wehmhoff envisioned a dream job not unlike that conjured in headlines: the freedom to write and the promise of a place in a tight-knit community. Over the course of months, Munson and Wehmhoff had several intense phone interviews with Persily; for some, they met in a room in the school building with the lights off, to avoid drawing the attention of their principal.

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When they learned they were among Persily’s top candidates, Munson and Wehmhoff drove eight hundred miles from Chugiak to Skagway to visit the place they hoped to call home. They were the only candidates to make such a trip; in January 2020, Persily offered them the paper.


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Ok, these are my two daughters, SIL and a friend doing the O-H-I-O in Alaska


Then, the pandemic derailed everything. This is their story:
https://www.cjr.org/special_report/s...=pocket-newtab

[DGUtley]

I have been to Skagway - twice.

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[Daily Bread]

There isn't a single car on that road through town and it doesn't look like the walks can handle any vehicles that may pull up to them . Is it open to pedestrians only and vehicles are parked behind the buildings ?

[Docthehun]

I have been to Skagway - twice.

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I've not, but what an incredibly great story. Hats off Counselor.

[Abby08]

I have been to Skagway - twice.

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I love that! It looks like an old cowboy town!

[DGUtley]

There isn't a single car on that road through town and it doesn't look like the walks can handle any vehicles that may pull up to them . Is it open to pedestrians only and vehicles are parked behind the buildings ?

Mrs U said they were scarce.