Outside Company Abandons Beloved & Iconic Alaska Magazine After 91 Years

Alaska Magazine in 2009. (Wikipedia)

Morris Communications, Headquartered In The Distant State Of Georgia, To Close Down Alaska Magazine 

The road route to Georgia across Canada and the U.S. (Google Maps)

Company Headquarters Are Almost 4,500 Road Miles From The Copper Valley 

The massive Augusta, Georgia printing company that most recently operated Alaska Magazine is walking away from the project. Morris Communications will close down Alaska's most beloved and iconic magazine at the end of December, 2026. The magazine will be 91 years old when it dies. 

Alaska Magazine had its start as the Alaska Sportsman Magazine. Robert Henning and Robert DeArmond bought it in 1958. Henning, a lively, pro-Alaska fur trader, ran it for 30 years. During that time period, almost every single Alaskan – and quite a few people from Outside who loved Alaska – eagerly read every single edition.

In 1995, Morris Communications, of sunny Georgia, bought Alaska Magazine. Morris also owns the Milepost travel guide.

In The 1970s, Everybody Read Alaska Magazine

Editor of the Country Journal Recalls...

In the winter of 1974-1975 Jeremy and I were living out at the base of Denali behind Mary Carey's Lodge on the Parks Highway. Jeremy sent Alaska Magazine a photo of me in the Woolrich red-and-black hunting pants I'd bought in Michigan before leaving for Alaska the year before. We were building a log cabin, and the knees had been slashed by a drawknife, pulled along the logs and hitting the fabric.

My photo was printed on the cover of the Alaska-Yukon Magazine -- a kind of mini-magazine inside the bigger Alaska Magazine.

Linda Weld in Alaska Magazine, wearing Woolrich lumberjack pants that are

still in the closet in Gakona. (Printed: November, 1975)

One winter day after publication, we were in Nordstrom's in Anchorage. I had to replace those pants, I'd cut them up so badly. The store was high-end. Among the linen dresses and fancy coats, there were Woolrich winter clothes. We stopped to look through the rack of Woolrich hunting pants. 

"I think this is the pair," I told Jeremy, pulling a pair off the rack.

The Nordstrom saleswoman – dressed in her slim-fitting skirt and her classic 70s shoes, puffed-up hairstyle and makeup – had been lingering around beside us, watching. She suddenly stepped forward, and rummaged through the merchandise, flipping through the racks. Finally...

"No," she said. "THIS is the pair of pants you're wearing in Alaska Magazine."