ANCHORAGE- Calista Corporation, The Native Corporation serving the Bering Sea Coast and owner of Alaska Newspapers, Inc. announced today the sale of five of their publications. Included in the sales were three newspapers, the Arctic Sounder, the Dutch Harbor Fisherman, and the Bristol Bay Times,and two other publications, The Equipment Shopper and the Bush Shopper.

Calista Corporation recently announced the closure of these publications as well as others throughout the state. Last week, they completed a deal to sell their Cordova publication to their current editor of the Cordova Times.

The new owners of this newest sale are Jason Evans and Kiana Peacock. Evans a native Inupiat raised in Nome. He is active in many organizations in the region, he is Chairman of the Sitnasuak Native Corporation sits on the board of the Bering Straits Native Corporation as well as the Alaska Community Foundation. “I am very proud to be an owner of my local hometown paper and excited to be a part of its new life,” Peacock said of the sale.

His wife and partner, Kiana Peacock was born and raised in Kotzebue and works for Alaska Airlines. She is also the president of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers Local 601.

Margaret Nelson, senior vice president of Calista Corp., said that the Native regional firm “has been honored for the past 19 years to have provided a voice to communities across Alaska, many of which are hundreds or thousands of miles off the road system. We look forward to Evans and Peacock continuing that tradition.”

This leaves only the Seward Phoenix LOG, the Tundra Drums and the First Alaskans Magazine without owners. The Alaska Native News and its staff join others in the native communities throughout the state looking forward to these publications finding new owners as well.