The Dutch Harbor Fisherman and five other rural newspapers are scheduled to make their final run on August 31.

The Calista Native Corporation announced on Friday that Alaska Newspapers Incorporated will be shutting down its printing press this summer for financial reasons. According to a press release, President and CEO Andrew Guy states that as "a responsibility to our 12 thousand shareholders, we had to take a hard look at the subsidiary and make a tough decision." On top of the Fisherman, the Tundra Drums, Arctic Sounder, Bristol Bay Times, Cordova Times, Seward Phoenix Log and First Alaskans magazine will also be closing up.

The Dutch Harbor Fisherman has a weekly circulation of 1,100, with much of that coming from newsstand sales. While the paper had been managed and edited from Anchorage in recent years, ANI hired an editor to work on-site from Unalaska this spring. James Mason has been here for a little under two months, and he says that the closure will be a loss.

“I think it’s really important for small communities to have a newspaper,” says Mason. “I’m not sure that the best management in the world could make these newspapers pay, but it would be really nice if they figured out some way -- maybe not a print newspaper -- to have an online newspaper so these communities do have their news.”

He adds that news of the liquidation came as a shock.

“I found out that I no longer had a job from a friend on Facebook who made a joke about it. He told me to read the [Associated Press] story that was on the [Anchorage] Daily News website. Then, I called the paper and, yeah, that’s what happened,” says Mason. “But I get the impression that the Associated Press got the story before the employees were notified.”

According to Calista’s press release, the corporation attempted to find a buyer for ANI but was unable to do so.

KUCB's Alexandra Gutierrez has more on the future of the paper.