Meet the Panelists: Press Freedom in Alaska
The Alaska Center for Excellence in Journalism and Alaska Press Club welcome moderator Rhonda McBride, and panelists Vicky Ho, Mark Sabbatini, and Joaqlin Estus for our panel discussion on Press Freedom in Alaska.
January 7, 2026 - The Alaska Center for Excellence in Journalism and Alaska Press Club welcome the moderator and panelists for this week’s discussion, Press Freedom in Alaska: What it takes to keep local news independent.
Moderating the discussion will be Rhonda McBride, a longtime Alaska journalist in both TV and radio. Since 1988, Rhonda has reported in Alaska radio and television newsrooms, from Utqiagvik to Unalakleet, to Sitka and St. Paul Island. She is currently a reporter and producer for KNBA, an Anchorage public radio station created to serve Alaska Natives. McBride specializes in stories about Alaska Native culture and history — and life in Rural Alaska. She is passionate about telling stories to help us see our world with new eyes.
Speaking on the panel will be Vicky Ho, Executive Editor of the Anchorage Daily News; Mark Sabbatini, Editor and Founder of the Juneau Independent, and Joaqlin Estus, retired journalist from ICT.
Vicky Ho is the executive editor of the Anchorage Daily News and a member of the Alaska Press Club's board. She’s also worked as a coach in the Poynter Institute’s Table Stakes program, helping local news organizations transition to more sustainable digital publishing models. Vicky was the evening editor at a daily newspaper in Colorado before joining the ADN in 2015.
Mark Sabbatini has been a journalist for nearly 40 years in more than 60 countries on all seven continents, extending from the South Pole to the northernmost town on Earth, at publications ranging from the Los Angeles Times to The Antarctic Sun. More than a decade of that was at the Juneau Empire, first during the late 1990s and then again starting in 2022 after the newspaper went through multiple ownership changes and downsizings. Sabbatini launched The Juneau Independent in June 2025 with the goal of ensuring Alaska’s capital city has a locally owned and operated news publication.
Joaqlin Estus recently retired from the position of a national correspondent for the Alaska Bureau of ICT (formerly Indian Country Today), an online news platform. Since 1990 she’s worked as a reporter for several radio stations in Alaska and at Minnesota Public Radio and as director of public communications for the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium. Earlier she worked in coastal management and as a historian.
The panel will discuss obstacles to local control and local reporting, different models of news organization ownership and management, and what’s being done to ensure that news coverage in Alaska is decided by local, professional editors and reporters. We invite you to share your thoughts on local news, press freedom, and how you get and share news relevant to your life.
It’s not too late! Please join us Thursday, January 8, 2026, 6:00 - 8:00 p.m. at 49th State Brewing’s Heritage Theater, 717 W. 3rd Ave. Anchorage, AK.
In lieu of tickets, please consider a $25 donation to the Alaska Center for Excellence in Journalism fund, powered by the Alaska Community Foundation.
Thank you to the Alaska Press Club for supporting travel for panelist Mark Sabbatini, and for promotional assistance.