Jake Dye

I’m so embarrassed that’s “Takedown” and not “How it’s Done.” I’ll have to atone by rewatching the movie

House Finance Committee HB 284 – TAX COMPACT; SALES TAX; OIL & GAS TAX Invited Testimony Nils Andreassen, Executive Director, Alaska Municipal League Presentations: Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute Alaska Travel Industry A...

At 2:20 here:
www.ktoo.org/gavel/video/...

Right when Nils Andreassen starts presenting in the 1:30 meeting he offers a lyric from “How it’s Done” and mentions HUNTR/X by name.

Calderwood pleads guilty to Murnane murder By Jake Dye Homer Independent PressMore than six years after the disappearance of Anesha “Duffy” Murnane in Homer, and nearly four years after a man in Utah was arrested on charges of kidnapping an…

More than six years after the disappearance of Anesha “Duffy” Murnane in Homer, and nearly four years after a man in Utah was arrested on charges of kidnapping and murdering her, 36-year-old Kirby Calderwood pled guilty to a single charge of second-degree murder for her death on Thursday.
#aknews

Kirby Calderwood pleaded guilty today to one count of murder in the second degree in the disappearance of Anesha “Duffy” Murnane in Homer in 2019. #KPBorough

The absolute thrill I just felt at a mention of Kpop Demon Hunters in House Finance Committee

I kinda accidentally ended up in print, despite starting with far more of an interest in audio and video. And the job market has deigned that I remain here.

It was not lost on me that in the Journalism and Public Communications program at UAA, all my classmates were in the PC side of JPC.

Played myself by switching my major to journalism in 2020. (And I’d do it again)

Also in this story; pools are going to be closed, even more teachers will lose their jobs, 2022 bond projects are still moving slowly and a student alleges that multiple disabled students have left Seward High because of an elevator out of order for a year — the mayor says it’ll be fixed soon.

School board considers closing Paul Banks By Jake Dye Homer Independent Press Facing a roughly $8.5 million deficit for the coming year, the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District’s Board of Education on Monday considered proposals for sc…

A phased proposal for Kenai Peninsula school consolidations, planned for consideration in March, describes the closure of Seward Middle School this year, followed by Paul Banks Elementary, Tustumena Elementary and Sterling Elementary as soon as 2027
#aknews
homerindependentpress.com/2026/02/05/s...

Soldotna protest opposes federal immigration operations Sunday’s protest came almost three weeks after immigration officers shot and killed 37-year-old Alex Pretti, a nurse with a Minneapolis veteran’s hospital. Pretti’s death was captured on cell phone vi...

Sunday’s protest came almost three weeks after immigration officers shot and killed 37-year-old Alex Pretti, a nurse with a Minneapolis veteran’s hospital. #KPBorough www.kdll.org/local-news/2...

Hm, I’ve not heard anything about this, though there is at least one other small, insular community on the southern KPen that I’m aware of. I’ll have to keep an eye out!

Carpenter came in to Oregon like a wrecking ball and immediately closed at least one community’s paper, laid off many experienced journalists, and at the same time required more output from the ones they kept, leading to low quality stories. All in the name of “preserving local news”.

In Hawai'i, Carpenter Media owns the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, Midweek, the Hawai'i Tribune-Herald and West Hawai'i Today.

Notably, West Hawai'i Today no longer has any reporters and is essentially a ghost paper.

Background: Carpenter Media owns the Juneau Empire, the Homer News and Peninsula Clarion - where reporters and editors quit this year in protest of corporate leadership interfering with news, but the company has a much wider footprint of buying up news outlets and gutting them.

“Todd Carpenter, meanwhile, seems to be thriving… One of his stallions… recently set a record for the highest-priced embryo ever sold at a public auction, fetching $450,000. Its stud fee costs more than seven weeks of Pleznac’s former salary."

"at a recent bargaining session with another media company, an executive reassured employees by saying, “Don’t worry, we won’t be like Carpenter.”

"After working at a radio station in Juneau, she was thrilled to land a position at the Homer News. It paid less than working the fry station at McDonald’s, but she considered getting the job a stroke of luck."

Carpenter Media's ominous takeover of local news. In just a few years, a publisher based in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, has become the country’s fourth-largest newspaper operator. Some reporters wonder if it isn’t the cruelest.

For years I’ve been begging for a comprehensive look at Carpenter Media and their whole deal and it dropped this morning; tales about an existential threat to local news in my hometown and others like it. From the Alaska resignations to mass layoffs to unrealistic quotas and ghost papers.

Similar vibes to when I convinced my editor at the Clarion to print words like yassified and slay in my hometown newspaper.

The absolute thrill I just felt at a mention of Heated Rivalry on the Alaska House floor.

KPB Assembly accepts state fire service reimbursements By Jake Dye Homer Independent Press The Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly on Tuesday approved the acceptance of state funds to reimburse Bear Creek Fire Service Area for equipment used during the Go…

New byline just dropped; covering Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly for the Homer Independent Press. This week’s meeting was not the most thrilling, but they accepted money from the state and asked the legislature to let them give volunteer firefighters a bigger tax break.
#aknews

The Clarion has been staffed since October by Delcenia Cosman in Homer as editor and Chloe Anderson in Juneau as reporter.

The Offices Only a Newsperson Could Love Ann Hermes spent six years documenting American newsrooms, from Juneau to St. Louis, forming a witty and elegiac portrait of local journalism in action.

I was charmed by the discourse around this story about amazing working newsrooms around the country late last year — featuring scenes from the Juneau Empire office Sound Publishing sold and people they laid off. There’s something magical about a newsroom, and Alaska has increasingly few of those.

Dreaming of a better future for Alaska journalism; haunted by visions of the newsroom I gave years of my life to in ruins

Opinion: The state of Alaska’s media Journalism in the Last Frontier isn’t dying — but it’s fighting to survive in a louder, meaner world.

I worked on this editorial for more than half a year. I hope it adequately captures the challenges of Alaska media. Big thanks to @adndotcom for publishing it. www.adn.com/opinions/202... #akleg #AlaskaHistory

Juneau’s first baby of 2026 is Bjorn at hospital Bjorn Schroth welcomed on Jan. 3 with a boat fit for a possible future captain.

Have you seen a perfect headline today? www.juneauindependent.com/post/juneau-...

Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) said during an interview today he was part of a briefing on the United States' three-phase plan for Venezuela following the capture and arrest of Nicolás Maduro last weekend. Story + full interview to come. #AKleg

Well, I thought I had retired from journalism… I’m now the volunteer editor for the Homer Independent Press. We went live on New Year’s Day. homerindependentpress.com/2026/01/01/e...

Thoughts from Michael on stepping back into the newsroom here:
homerindependentpress.com/2026/01/01/e...