Anchorage Weekly Times and Alaska Labor News Archive

The Alaska Labor News published its first issue on September 30, 1916, in its role as the official paper of the Alaska Labor Union. It was printed by Charlie Herron's Anchorage Publishing Company, which he used to publish the Anchorage Daily Times and Cook Inlet Pioneer and the Anchorage Weekly Times and Cook Inlet Pioneer which he owned. Editors of the Alaska Labor News included R.E. Hegner, Charles Granty, and Lena Morrow Lewis.

Herron canceled the printing contract with the Alaska Labor News after less than a year, due to alleged anarchist influence from members of the Industrial Workers of the World, and it ceased independent publication on June 30, 1917. Shortly after, on July 14^th, Herron renamed his Anchorage Weekly Times to the Anchorage Weekly Times and Alaska Labor News, adding in union coverage. He emphasized his past support of the Alaska Labor Union and indicated that this new paper still had their approval.

This marriage of general and union news started with one page per issue dedicated to labor matters and issues and the hiring of Charles H. Packard, a former president of the Alaska Labor Union, to be the editor of the labor content in his new paper. In practice, though, the labor content seems to have often been limited to one or two columns scattered throughout the paper. The last issue of the Anchorage Weekly Times and Alaska Labor News was on August 15, 1918, but any semblance of a labor section in the paper had disappeared long before that. On August 22, 1918, the paper changed its name to the by then more accurate title, Anchorage Weekly Times.