By THE ALASKA STORY
May 7, 2026 – When The Alaska Story launched 26 weeks ago, the goal was simple: Build a news platform that gives Alaska conservatives a voice at a time when many readers felt unheard, overlooked, or dismissed by the state’s political and media establishment.
Half a year later, the numbers tell a remarkable story of growth.
In just 26 weeks, The Alaska Story website and social media channels have generated millions of visitors and tens of millions of content views, fueled entirely by organic growth and reader engagement.
According to internal analytics covering the period from our launch in the fall through early May, The Alaska Story’s Facebook presence alone generated more than 36.9 million views, reached 5.3 million viewers, produced nearly 936,000 content interactions, and drove more than 383,000 link clicks back to stories and features.
At the same time, website traffic analytics show sustained readership spikes throughout the past six months, with several news cycles drawing more than a million visitors during peak periods as Alaskans turned to The Alaska Story for breaking political coverage, legislative analysis, election reporting, commentary, and investigative features.
The publication’s rapid growth reflects a growing appetite for independent Alaska-focused journalism that is unapologetically centered on issues many readers believe receive too little attention elsewhere.
While The Alaska Story covers a broad range of news, including global events that affect Alaska families and the nation, its core mission remains rooted in Alaska itself: the political winds of change in the state, constitutional freedoms, Second Amendment rights, energy development, election integrity, family issues, resource policy, and the cultural battles shaping Alaska’s future.
The audience growth has extended well beyond the website.
The Alaska Story’s newsletter has now surpassed 32,000 subscribers in just six months, placing it among the top-ranked news newsletters on Substack. The publication recently entered Substack’s Top 100 list in the News category, an unusually rapid rise for a publication less than half a year old.
Facebook growth has also been entirely organic. The page is now approaching 20,000 followers without paid boosts or artificial promotion strategies, relying instead on reader sharing, engagement, and word-of-mouth support.
That organic growth matters in today’s media environment, where many digital outlets rely heavily on paid audience acquisition or algorithmic manipulation to inflate reach numbers.
Instead, The Alaska Story’s readership has largely been built one article, one share, and one reader recommendation at a time.
The publication has also become a platform for a wide range of Alaska voices, publishing hundreds of news reports, opinion pieces, columns, legislative analyses, and reader discussions since launch. Thousands of reader comments and discussions have helped shape an active online community centered on Alaska policy and public affairs.
The past 26 weeks have included coverage of major legislative fights, election reform battles, Alaska LNG developments, education policy debates, municipal controversies, federal land issues, judicial rulings, and national political stories with direct consequences for Alaskans.
For founder Suzanne Downing, the milestone is less about raw traffic numbers and more about proving there is still strong demand for independent journalism focused squarely on Alaska readers rather than national narratives.
At a time when trust in legacy media continues to erode nationwide, The Alaska Story’s growth suggests many Alaskans are actively seeking alternative sources of reporting, analysis, and commentary that reflect their own concerns and priorities.
Twenty-six weeks in, The Alaska Story is still growing. Your support for this project has been an important investment in the future of Alaska. Thank you. See you Somewhere in Alaska!
10 thoughts on “Twenty-six weeks in, The Alaska Story tops 36 million views. Thank you!”
This is hard for me to believe. 36 million views? I only get 36 views per day. I think Suzanne is inflating her views. I may have to change my homepage name to something sexier. “Snorting (and farting) From Alaska” isn’t bringing in the donations I need to sustain certain habits.
Sorry Dermot, but you don’t have the writing skills, nor do you have an intellectually honest approach to a story that Suzanne Downing has. Dermot is hostile to people he doesn’t agree with and his attention to factual, and truthful, investigation is suspect. Dermot doesn’t have people skills. An intolerant man, he only appeals to his left-wing viewers, and most of them really can’t stand Dermot.
A well earned “Congratulations” to Suzanne and team at Alaska Story.
I’m thankful to the falling out between Downing and the liberal from Homer managing the now dead Must Read Alaska site (can you believe how commi that site’s gone readers have to sign in) , ever since she had sold to an organization controlled by Alaska Republican and Democrat liberals, she was limping along like MRAK was. The falling out gave Ms Downing wings to fly and start The Alaska Story!
I hope more Alaskan parents pull their family’s next generation of our Alaska schools for either in person private school (if they don’t mind wasting thousands of dollars each year) or use an online homeschool private school that costs less than 4000 or homeschool using lesser cost and free sources; so Ms Downing gets Alaskan young adult journalists, writers, politicos from GenZ and GenAlpha to help her manage the site because of better education.
They from GenZ and GenAlpha are what will determine if more independent and conservative ideas and journalism like The Alaska Story, The Alaska Watchman will continue long after Ms Downing.
First Alaska parents need to pull their kids out of public schools for more traditional, classical forms of education.
… parents and raising more Brett Coopers (conservative minded) but they have to reorganize their lives by taking out the children from public schools. She is A young woman of GenZ managing a YouTube and I’m sure other platforms because her YouTube account as over 160 million subscribers.
WooHoo! Awsome! Meanwhile, back at MRAK, you have to register to even comment on there……..
Congrats SD!
> MRAK, you have to register to even comment on there……..
Once they began censoring and registering, I left and haven’t been there there since. No reason to go.
Congrats Suzanne. We appreciate your REAL news stories for Alaska!
Even this article is news we find interesting and encouraging. (And yes we take everything with a grain of salt.) Conversing with valley locals they are aware of and follow this new outlet for Suzanne’s genius.
Supported at the other place, and will here too. But slow. Thanks
“The Alaska Story’s growth suggests many Alaskans are actively seeking alternative sources of reporting, analysis, and commentary that reflect their own concerns and priorities.” In otherwords we are seeking news sources based upon factual information, thank you for providing that here.