ACEJ Advisers Stand for Editorial Independence

Thursday, Oct. 16, 2025 - The Alaska Center for Excellence in Journalism fund’s advisory committee has co-signed a letter supporting editorial independence in Alaska journalism. The letter, published by the Alaska Press Club, addresses the fallout from Carpenter Media’s decision to remove, alter and republish a Homer News reporter’s story — at the bequest of a state lawmaker — rather than addressing the conversation through the reporter and editors.

Three reporters and an editor at the company’s three Alaskan papers — The Homer News, The Peninsula Clarion, and The Juneau Empire — resigned due to the dispute. Despite the employees giving two weeks’ notice, Carpenter Media accepted their resignations immediately, leaving the three newspapers with two reporters amongst them, just ahead of local city and borough elections. The lack of reporters threatens the amount and quality of information residents will receive about their local government and communities.

In the letter, the Alaska Press Club, and ACEJ’s advisers, “condemn Carpenter Media Group’s irregular and improper interference in the editorial process. When publishers override editors or allow politicians to dictate coverage, they erode the firewall between business and the work of journalism. That firewall exists to protect ethical decision making in newsrooms and sustains the trust communities have in the media.”

The Alaska Center for Excellence in Journalism Advisory Committee, along with the Alaska Press Club board, as stated in the letter, “will always defend editorial independence, transparency and the right of Alaska’s journalists to do their work free from intimidation.”