Digital Bob Archive

Juneau's daily newspaper, which during its 73-year history has sailed under five different names, each of which contained the word \"Empire,\" will before many months be moving to its fourth home. Only one Alaska daily paper is older, but none has had as many name changes.

The Alaska Daily Empire was established by John F.A. Strong who had previously worked on or owned papers at Skagway, Dawson, Nome, Katalla and Iditarod. The paper's first home was at No. 123 on the east side of Main Street in a building owned by Charles Goldstein. And away back then it was assigned telephone number 374.

The origin of its plant is uncertain but it probably had belonged to the Alaska Daily Record which had folded in 1911. It included an early model Linotype and a drum press that printed on flat sheets of paper, each of which had to be run through twice to print both sides. The first issue, with four pages, was on November 2, 1912, just three days before Alaska's first legislative election. That first issue had the vote, from all precincts, for the fourth Delegate in Congress election, held the previous August.

On May 1, 1913, John Strong became the first man to be appointed governor of the new Territory of Alaska and he sold the Empire to a group of men headed by John W. Troy. Troy eventually bought out the others and formed the Empire Printing Company. In July, 1916, the Empire moved across the street to a new home built for it by B.M. Behrends, a two story and basement building that had in its basement a new Duplex Perfecting Press, the first of its kind in Alaska. It used roll paper and could print all pages of an eight-page paper at one time.

Someone must finally have taken a close look at the name Alaska Daily Empire and decided it didn't make much sense. At any rate, on December 8, 1926, it became The Daily Alaska Empire, a name it retained until July 22, 1964, when it became the Juneau Alaska Empire. That lasted until July 8, 1968, when there was a change to Southeast Alaska Empire. The most recent change was to Juneau Empire on February 11, 1980. With the impending move to a new home, can we look for another change, perhaps to Gastineau Channel Empire, or Juneau Suburban Empire?

John W . Troy, during his ownership of the Empire, served first as Collector of Customs for Alaska, then as Governor of Alaska, both presidential appointments. Following his death on May 2, 1942, his daughters, Helen Troy Monsen and Dorothy Troy Lingo, became respectively president and vice president of the Empire Printing Company. The last issue under the 42-year Troy regime was on June 6, 1955. The following day the name William Prescott Allen appeared in the masthead as the owner. Allen had a number of papers in the southwestern part of the country but for several years under his ownership the Empire did not carry the name of owner, publisher or editor.

The next change was on July 14, 1963, when Donald W. Reynolds of Las Vegas, Nevada, and Fort Smith, Arkansas, became the publisher, operating as the Donrey Media Group. That lasted until March 24, 1969, when William S. Morris, III, the present publisher, took over. There were other changes, too: the old Duplex was discarded and a modern offset press took its place. Then, in mid-July, 1977, the old building was abandoned, the site became a parking lot and the paper moved to 235 Second Street. Now another move is in the offing, leading to the question, \"Will Juneau ever again have a downtown daily paper?\"

Correction: The author goofed in last week's Yore column. Nome, not Anchorage, was, of course, the headquarters for the old Second Judicial Division.