We hope you are enjoying the return to the printed version of The Skagway News. 

 When the borders closed in March 2020 due to the pandemic, we were cut off from our printer in Whitehorse. When the cruise ships didn’t arrive, like all businesses in Skagway, we lost a major portion of our income. Printing the paper became impossible, both logistically and financially. 

We exhausted all possible and affordable options over the year to get the paper from Whitehorse. In the meantime, we pivoted to a PDF version on our website. 

Last fall, the Municipality of Skagway offered a grant to all Skagway businesses, then later, the SNOW grant. We felt the best way to utilize the funds we were awarded was to return the money to the community in the form of a physical paper. 

Now the paper is printed by the Frontiersman in Wasilla. Gretchen handles the mailing and shipping from Chugiak. The paper will arrive two days later, but it’s the best we can do under the circumstances.

The paper will be printed until the grant funds run out. Printing, shipping and mailing is expensive, but we believe our customers and the town deserve a real paper in tough times. We don’t make any money from printing the paper. We generate revenue from advertising, subscriptions and local sales. 

Our advertisers, many of whom may not need to advertise with us but choose to support their local paper, are our heroes. It is their advertising income we use to pay utilities, fees and rent. We hope you support them as they have supported us.

While we received some CARES money last October from the state, that was the first and last time we received any sort of salary. 

We continue to produce The Skagway News because we believe in small town newspapers. We believe in this town. We believe that publishing The Skagway News is our contribution as members of the community as we all pull together to ensure Skagway’s survival.

Thank you for your support.

-Melinda Munson & Gretchen Wehmhoff

Co-owners/The Skagway News