Alaska newspaper sold to online rival
By Brian Stelter, CNN
Five years ago, the largest newspaper in the state of Alaska, the Anchorage Daily News, published a skeptical Q&A with the editor of a startup news Web site called the Alaska Dispatch.
At the time the Dispatch was a part-time job for its founders. It was accepting donations from readers to pay for Web servers. The Anchorage Daily News editors asked if the Alaska Dispatch was "a business or a hobby?" and if "a blogging project like Alaska Dispatch is sustainable?"
It's clearly no longer a hobby. And it apparently is sustainable. On Tuesday, the Alaska Dispatch boughtthe newspaper for $34 million.
The sale is further affirmation of the rise of digital news operations. It appears that no other similarly-sized newspaper has been swallowed up by an online rival. (Amazon (AMZN, Fortune 500) CEO Jeff Bezos bought The Washington Post as a personal investment.)
Read more of Brian's story online here.
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Brian Stelter is the host of "Reliable Sources" and the senior media correspondent for CNN Worldwide. Before he joined CNN in November 2013, Stelter was a media reporter for The New York Times. He is the author of the New York Times best-seller "Top of the Morning."
Here's his biography. You can read his stories on this blog and at CNNMoney.com/Media/.
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