By Annie Zak, Alaska Dispatch News
ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Alaska’s largest newspaper filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Saturday evening and new owners — an Alaska family that made its fortune hauling freight and tourists on the Yukon River and its tributaries, and a company that owns rural newspapers in the state — have been lined up.
Alaska Dispatch News owner Alice Rogoff, who also has served as publisher, said in a prepared statement that it was a “truly bittersweet” moment for her, though she is relieved the newspaper will live on under new ownership. She didn’t name the new owners, though the group interested in buying the paper issued a statement Saturday.
“We’ve worked hard to help illuminate the issues of our day and provide a platform for points of view from across Alaska,” Rogoff said. “Yet like newspapers everywhere, the struggle to make ends meet financially eventually caught up with us. I simply ran out of my ability to subsidize this great news product. Financial realities can’t be wished away.”
Cabot Christianson, a bankruptcy attorney representing the newspaper in the Chapter 11 proceeding, said that along with filing for bankruptcy protection, the company is also planning to ask the bankruptcy court to allow it to borrow up to $1 million in working capital from the potential buyers, and to seek court approval to sell the newspaper as a whole to that buyer.
The potential buyers, working together, are a company composed of siblings Ryan Binkley, Wade Binkley, James Binkley and Kai Binkley Sims, and Alaska Media, which owns three rural Alaska newspapers. The group is led by Ryan Binkley and Alaska Media owner Jason Evans, according to a statement from the group. Saturday. Former Anchorage Daily News publisher Jerry Grilly, who retired as president and CEO of the Denver Post in 2012, is a consultant to the group, Ryan Binkley said.
The Binkley group, Ryan Binkley said, was formed specifically for the purpose of buying the newspaper. His company and Alaska Media will pool resources, but he declined to provide specific details about funding.
The final decision on the ownership of the newspaper will be made in about a month, Christianson said. Other parties that might be interested in buying the newspaper will also be able to bid, “and we could end up in an auction situation,” he said. Binkley said the sale doesn’t become final until the bankruptcy ends, and while Rogoff continues to own the company for now, the new group will operate it.
The $1 million in working capital can be used for payroll, taxes, “and whatever else is needed to keep a paper running,” Christianson said.
“To the extent they want to see cash used for a particular purpose or they want to have some new person come in and run the company on an interim basis, they have that right,” he said.
Binkley said the “final purchase price” of the paper “could be up to $1 million.”
“Who knows what they’re going to do in terms of employees, but there will still be a newspaper and there will still be jobs,” Christianson said. “The goal is to keep the paper going and maintain the presence of the paper in the community.”
Ryan Binkley said in an interview there are no immediate plans for layoffs.
“We need to get in there, get to know everybody, understand how the organization is put together,” he said. “We’ve got to find efficiencies, but no, we don’t have any specific plans yet.”
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
