Where Snowbirds Fly South for the Winter
In our continuing series, we offer a closer look at community newspapers around the country and the people who work the local beat.
This week, we profile Mukluk News, a bi-monthly based in Tok, Alaska. Tok has a population of 1,200 and is about 320 miles northeast of Anchorage. Mukluk News publishes the first and third Thursday of the month (in January, there’s only one issue). 28 states have subscriptions, which are $25 a year, and single issues are 50 cents in the store. Circulation is 500.
Editor Beth Jacobs responded to our questions.
How long have you been publisher at Mukluk News?
My husband George and I started the newspaper in 1976. We’ve only missed publishing two issues.
We originally moved to Alaska in 1966 to teach. My husband George retired from teaching after 25 years; I taught for eight years until I started working at home for H&R Block, which we turned into our own tax business.
In 1985 we opened a visitor park called Mukluk Land, a combination of museum of Alaskan items, fun things like golf, skee ball, darts, tether ball, a snack shop, movies, and a gift shop.
Describe your operation.
I write and edit the newspaper, and my husband George prints the paper in-house on a Ricoh digital copy printer and helps with billing. Our grandson Griffin staples all the papers, and our son Gary delivers issues to local businesses. (Mukluk News does not publish a digital version and uses no social media channels to promote.)
What’s your community like?
Tok is quite a tourist town as every vehicle that drives to Alaska has to come through Tok to go on to Anchorage or Fairbanks. Our tourist season is mainly mid-May to mid-September. Our school has preschool through high school. Tok also has a clinic, dental office, three beauticians, six churches, three gas stations, a saw repair shop, three garages, sporting goods store, big grocery store, highway department, police department, Wildlife Office and Fish and Game Office, post office, visitor center, courthouse, power and telephone company, two bars, four motels and Mukluk Land. We do have quite a few snowbirds …. people who are here in the summer and head south for the winter!
How is your area changing?
Well, there is not a lot here to make things change.
What’s a good story about your newspaper’s involvement in the community?
We do our best to have all avenues of Tok life represented. Since we do not have reporters we have to depend on different organizations to keep us posted on their activities.
What are the big challenges that your newspaper is facing?
We have kept our paper small enough so we don’t have to face big challenges. I guess the biggest challenge is always to be sure all the equipment is working correctly. One time we had to go 140 miles away to another paper to print ours when our printer was broken down. Another time when it was broken we went 200 miles the other direction.
What work of your newspaper are you especially proud of?
It gives me great pride when all sides of an issue can be presented. That really is how the the Mukluk News began. There was a small paper here, but it would print mainly one side of an issue. We were discussing this at a church potluck with an English teacher. My husband said: if you girls will put it together, I’ll print it. And that is how we started.
We had two IBM electric typewriters and a Gestetner Mimeograph machine. We collated around the kitchen table. Later we bought out our partner as she was moving away. Our daughter started to take over the paper after she got a degree in journalism at college, and I was almost completely done working on the paper when she died unexpectedly, so I got back in the saddle again and still enjoy doing the paper.
At age 75 I do my best to plan ahead so there’s not big stress at the end. I guess I would say I’m also especially pleased that we have one page devoted to spiritual items . We like to nourish the soul as well as the mind.
How do you see your newspaper changing over the next five years?
We don’t see a lot of changes in the near future. We are very comfortable with our machinery and the paper we produce. It is not a traditional paper as it is printed on 11 x 17 paper and then stapled in the corner. We have tried to keep our advertising rates very reasonable and we have had wonderful support from our local advertisers. We also have advertising support from the Delta community — they are 100 miles from us, but Tok folks have to go through there to get to Fairbanks.
The next newspapers are 140 miles in one direction and 100 miles in the other direction. We are 90 miles inside the Alaska/Canada border. Besides being the paper for Tok, we cover the native villages of Mentasta, Northway, Tetlin, Tanacross, Eagle, and Dot Lake. All of these schools are in our school district.
