Early history

The Anchorage Daily News was born as the weekly Anchorage News, publishing its first issue January 13, 1946. The paper's founder and first publisher was Norman C. Brown. The early president of the paper's parent company was Harry J. Hill, who was also assistant treasurer of The Lathrop Company.^[2] This established the theory that Cap Lathrop was really behind the publication, but didn't wish to have his name formally associated with it, unlike his other newspapers such as the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. Brown did share Lathrop's views on the statehood issue. Brown became a leader in the short-lived mid-1950s movement to turn Alaska into a commonwealth rather than a state.

The newspaper became an afternoon daily in May 1948, although it wouldn't publish a Sunday newspaper until June 13, 1965. By then, the Anchorage Daily News had become a morning newspaper, making that switch on April 13, 1964.

By the 1970s, the gradual downturn in the newspaper industry was taking its toll on the ADN. Lawrence Fanning had purchased the paper in 1968, but suffered a heart attack at his desk and died in 1971. His widow, Katherine Woodruff "Kay" Fanning, took over. Kay Fanning had previously been married into the Marshall Field family (she was the mother of Ted Field). This was of no help to her, as the paper plunged further into debt as the decade wore on. In 1974, Fanning entered into a joint operating agreement with the Anchorage Times. Times publisher Robert Atwood cancelled the agreement 4 years later. By this point, the paper's news-gathering and editorial operations were operating out of a small two-story storefront building at the corner of West Seventh Avenue and I Street.

Purchase by the McClatchy Company

The McClatchy Company purchased the Daily News in 1979, when it bought a controlling interest from Kay Fanning, who had been editor and publisher since Larry Fanning's death in 1971. Kay Fanning continued as the head of the paper until mid-1983. While retaining some financial interest in the paper, she went on to become the editor of The Christian Science Monitor.

The Daily News was the first of two newspapers that the then-122-year-old, California-based, McClatchy Company bought outside the state; the Kennewick, Washington, Tri-City Herald was the next. McClatchy would later grow to become a national newspaper company, including the purchase of the Knight-Ridder chain in 2006.^[3]

Purchase by the Alaska Dispatch

In April, 2014, it was announced that the Alaska Dispatch web publication would be buying the Anchorage Daily News for US$34 million. The deal closed in May, 2014.^[4][5]

2014 name change

On Sunday, July 20, 2014, the parent-company of the ADN, the Alaska Dispatch, renamed the paper the Alaska Dispatch News.^[6]

2017 bankruptcy

Adn.com announced on August 13, 2017, that it had filed for bankruptcy after being sued for back rent by Alaska telecommunications company GCI. Control of operations was immediately assumed by a group led by Ryan Binkley of Fairbanks, who were in the process of purchasing the paper.^[7]

In November 2017, the paper's Facebook page reverted its name back to Anchorage Daily News; the paper itself rebranded to Anchorage Daily News on November 18.