On January 4, 1964, Hall and Marion Thorn published the first edition of the
Homer News. The initial press run was 600. Previously, there was another paper called the
Homer News founded in the 1950s by H.W. and W.H. Hegdahl, but after a few years they renamed it to the
Kenai Peninsula Pioneer. Williams sold the
News in January 1978 to Howard and Tod Simons, and Tom Gibboney. Gibboney was managing editor of the
Anchorage Daily News. Under him, the Anchorage paper won a
Pulitzer Prize. Gibboney resigned following the sale to operate the Homer paper.
Howard Simons was managing editor of
The Washington Post and directed the Pultizer Prize winning investigation of the
Watergate scandal. He lived with his wife Tod Simons in
Washington, D.C. In 1988, Gibboney left the paper and moved to
Menlo Park, California. In 2000,
Morris Communications acquired the
Homer News from Gibboney and Martin and Nancy Cohen. At that time the paper's circulation was 3,800. Morris had previously purchased two other Alaskan papers, the
Juneau Empire and
Peninsula Clarion. In 2018, GateHouse sold its Alaska papers to
Sound Publications, a subsidiary of
Black Press Media. The company was acquired in March 2024 by Carpenter Media Group. In October 2024, the newspaper sold its office building. ==References==