The Landmine has confirmed that Suzanne Downing has left the conservative news site Must Read Alaska. Her departure stemmed from a disagreement with owner Jon Faulkner over a story about former Attorney General Treg Taylor’s upcoming hearing at the Alaska Public Office Commission that she refused to take down.
Taylor, who recently resigned as attorney general, will soon announce his campaign for governor – making him the tenth Republican in the race.
Downing founded Must Read Alaska in 2015 to provide a conservative voice in Alaska’s media landscape. She previously served as editor at the Juneau Empire, a speechwriter for former Governor Sean Parnell, and communications director for the Alaska Republican Party.
In 2023, Downing sold Must Read Alaska to Alaska Gold Communications, led by businessman Jon Faulkner. She remained on the board but sold her shares to Faulkner in 2024. Since selling Must Read Alaska, she has continued to manage and provide the day-to-day content.
Her departure will be a major loss to the business. Downing, who has made enemies of many Democrats and some moderate Republicans for her sometimes vicious articles, is also known for posting copious amount of content on Must Read Alaska.
With her gone, it’s not clear who will take over the day-to-day operations for Must Read Alaska. Finding someone with the knowledge and skills to run Must Read Alaska like her, and who wants that job, will be an extremely difficult task.
Downing grew Must Read Alaska into one of the most widely read news sites in Alaska. Conservatives are the main audience, but many progressives also read it as a guilty pleasure or to see what she will say next. Many Republican elected officials often fear what she may write about them and have been known to adjust their behavior or votes accordingly.
While many will celebrate her departure, many will also be saddened to lose her perspective and sheer number of stories. She has set up a new Facebook page for herself, SuzanneDowningAK.
Downing bought a home and moved to Skagway last year to be closer to her son and grandchild.
Faulkner is making a big mistake! Suzanne’s no compete clause has very likely expired and she can simply start a new blog. She is an icon whose articles are read by tens of thousands of readers every day. Faulkner does not have the valuable connections or skills necessary to run this publication and Suzanne definitely does.
Must Read barely qualifies as journalism let alone a blog, it reads like the semi-coherent AI generated blurbs that your racist aunt posts to her Facebook page before you unfriend her.
You did a good job of proving Jeff’s point…
Speaking of incoherent! Pretty sure you win that award Tiger.
Lighten up, Francis.
This is a more respectful article than she would have written if the Landmine had gone under, that is for sure.
Probably because MRAK is far more deserving of respect. What has “gone under” is Jon Faulkner’s opportunity to be a player in Alaska Politics. Yanking the rug out from Suzanne will cost him in many other ways. Big mistake!
She was and is a maga bigot propaganda hack
Remind me, what has MRAK contributed anything of note even approaching the value of the Campbell Lake and other access issue reporting that has been published here? Not written by Landfill, true, but platformed here.
Good riddance, she will not be missed.
I had forgotten just how much of the readership of Landmine likes to spew hatred to anyone who has a contrary political opinion from that of the publisher. Could this be a reason why there are so few Alaskans who bother reading Landmine?
I would think that Jeff L would understand that is why he has so few readers. A more balanced approach with an editor that would screen out hateful comments would likely increase readership which in turn would increases advertising revenue.
Surely there is room for publishing differing opinions without including the mean spirited and hateful rhetoric.
Where can we find the Landmine’s reader count?
What comments here are hateful? While I would prefer more neutral verbs (“vicious articles,” etc.), there’s no hate. I appreciate the Landmine’s apparent stance on free speech rights. Good grief.
Lyn:
Maybe you should re read the comment from Tigertree equating Suzanne’s journalism to semi coherent racist Aunt’s posts!
And the words “vicious articles”’are not verbs. They are an adjective and a noun!
Suzanne personally moderated comments on her articles allowing people to make explicit and derogatory comments about gays and natives and especially liberals. For example: Lots of people using the term “libtard” but if anyone tried to use the opposite “trumptard” it was blocked. Well documented that she curated hatred amongst her readers and thrived on it. Like other “conservative” writers e.g. Tucker Carlson and even Alex Jones there might have been a time when they were capable of exemplary journalism but they got high on their own supply of outrage bait and lost their minds…
And yet here you are…
DAMN! She won’t ever get that precious ceremonial citation she was hoping for. One less boomer spreading disinformation to our vulnerable populations. Bye bye
Does she go work on Bernadette’s campaign or come to work with Jeff at the Landmine?
Jeff and Suzanne? You need to cut back on the meds Sandwich
Very disappointed off her leaving. She writes the true news that Liberals hate.
I agree with you Roger. My guess is that she won’t be gone long. Now that she is no longer attached to Faulkner I would not be surprised to see a new format of her column up and running sometime in the not too distant future.
Echo chamber bullshit isn’t good for anyone be it liberal or right wing – it’s still garbage – at least Jeff is glued to Alaska politics without being an active partisan employee of any given political party.