Kay Fanning's Alaska Story: Memoir of a Pulitzer Prize-Winning Newspaper Publisher on America's Northern Frontier

by Kay Fanning, Katherine Field Stephen (Contributor)

Kay Fanning's Alaska Story is an inspirational memoir of how Kay built the Anchorage Daily News into a bastion of progressive leadership. She did it with grace and integrity, always placing public interests above special interests. In 1965, Kay loaded her three children into a station wagon and headed north for a fresh start in Alaska. She took a job at the Anchorage Daily News, eventually purchasing the struggling newspaper with her new husband, Larry Fanning. Just as they were gaining steam, however, Larry died of a heart attack. Kay became editor and publisher, turning the Daily News into Alaska's largest newspaper. She and her newspaper won a Pulitzer Prize in 1976 for coverage of corruption in Alaska's powerful Teamsters Union. In 1983, Kay headed East to become editor of the Christian Science Monitor. She began working on this memoir, but she died before it was finished. Katherine Field Stephen, her daughter, finished the book by inviting eight of Kay Fanning's friends and associates to contribute stories of how Kay helped define Alaska's issues and shape its future.

Genres: Journalism

256 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2006

Reviews

[Nola · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kay Fanning’s Alaska Story is a different kind of book because Kay Fanning passed away before she finished writing it, so her daughter finished the book with several first-person accounts from friends and associates of Kay’s. I had read what Jay Hammond had to say about the two Anchorage newspapers, and still had trouble remembering which name went with which one. After reading this book, I don’t have that problem any more. According to the book, the story of the Anchorage Daily News is as Jay Hammond recounted it, but there is much more to it. I had no idea of how difficult a struggle they had. Apparently, the paper was never really financially feasible and required, at one point, millions of dollars of cash infused from Kay Fanning’s son’s trust fund. It finally ended up being acquired by the McClatchy Company, which was capable of putting many millions more into it. Kay Fanning, her husband Larry, and their staff were very dedicated to good reporting. They felt that was missing from the only other Anchorage paper, the Anchorage Times, because the Times was owed by Bob Atwood, who always editorialized in favor of things from which he would receive financial gain and the Times had no interest in in-depth reporting. The Anchorage Daily News won Pulitzer Prizes, which was really remarkable for a newspaper of their size from a city the size of Anchorage. They ran series exploring such things as the lives of Alaska Natives and oil and the environment. The Alaska Daily News took editorial stands at odds with the moneyed establishment of the time and at odds with the well-established Anchorage Times. The descriptions of life working at the newspaper include some pretty interesting employees. All the employees, and especially the owners and their young children, worked long hours at the newspaper, fighting to produce a quality product with antiquated sub-standard equipment. The Fannings hiring interesting staff, usually idealistic journalists who contributed to their journalistic vision, but ocassionally people who contributed to the paper’s financial problems. The book weaves together stories of the news from those days with the stories of the reporters who covered it and were impacted by it.

[JodiP · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this somewhat gossipy, chatty history of Ms. Fanning. The first part was the best, when she writes about her own experiences. I enjoyed learning about Alaska politics and newspaper dynamics in the 60s. Sadly, she didn't get to complete her memoir, and her part ends when her husband, Larry dies in 1971. She went on to run the Anchorage Daily News--but we don't really get that story. I thought it was going to be so wonderful to ehar from her colleagues, but most ofthem just re-hashed the early years. Only one person talked about her work in the 70s. Also, Kay's writing was pretty pedestrian, and the production values of the book weren't that great. In the end, very glad I read this for an insider's look at the early days of Alaska's statehood and early days of the oil boom.

[Kathy · Rating 2 out of 5]

You'd really have to be into the publishing business to enjoy this book. Just a lot of detail that is not to interesting otherwise. sorta gossipy, name-dropping sort of a book. Although Kay Fanning sounds like a terrific person.

[Heidi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love reading stories from Alaska. This was a great book about one woman's experience in an earlier Alaska.