What Is Sitka, Alaska, and What Does the Daily Sitka Sentinel Cover?
Sitka is a community in Southeast Alaska, and the Daily Sitka Sentinel is its home-owned local newspaper, published in Sitka since 1940. If you want news about Sitka's city government, schools, fisheries, elections, and everyday community life, the Sentinel is built for that. If you need national or world coverage as your main source, this is a local paper with Alaska, nation/world, and entertainment sections rather than a national outlet.
Where Sitka fits
Sitka sits in Southeast Alaska, the region the paper's own keywords call "South East Alaska." The Sentinel describes itself as "a home-owned newspaper serving Sitka, Alaska since 1940," and its tagline is "Sitka, AK local news, culture, shopping." That framing tells you what kind of community it serves: a small Alaska town where local government, schools, fisheries, and community happenings are the core of the news.
What the Daily Sitka Sentinel covers
The site's navigation shows the paper's beat structure directly. Main coverage areas include:
- Local news — city government, schools, community happenings, community news, police blotter, local business
- Fisheries — a dedicated section, which fits a Southeast Alaska fishing community
- Things to do and Sitka Yesterday — events and local history
- Alaska news, plus nation/world, national news, world news, entertainment, health, national business
- Sports
- Obituaries and Letters/Opinion
It also carries e-editions (digital replicas of the print paper) and a Marketplace with classifieds.
Examples of the kind of reporting you'll find
From the site's current front page, typical stories include:
- "Sitkans Testify: Keep Roadless Rule" — residents testifying at U.S. Forest Service subsistence hearings about the Tongass National Forest and the 2001 Roadless Rule
- "Mayoral Candidates State Views, Concerns" — election coverage ahead of the municipal election on Tuesday, Oct. 6, where voters elect two Assembly members, three School Board members, and a new mayor
- "Coast Guard Rescues Sitka Troller" and "Coast Guard Goes To Rescue of Sitka Skipper" — maritime and fisheries news
- "New Education Credits Raise Local Questions" — state education policy and how it lands in Sitka schools
The paper also runs a 2026 Municipal Election Hub, described as "your guide to Sitka's municipal election, with candidate answers, ballot information, and more."
How to use the site
The Sentinel's menu is organized so you can go straight to what you need:
- Local news and City government for civic coverage
- Schools for education stories
- Fisheries for fishing industry news
- Obituaries for death notices
- Letters/Opinion for reader submissions
- E-editions to read page-by-page digital issues
- Marketplace and Classifieds for local buying, selling, and listings
If you want to submit something rather than read, the site offers Send your news, Report news, Letters to the editor, and announcement forms for anniversaries, births, birthdays, engagements, obituaries, and weddings. There's also a Place a Sunshine Corner ad option and an Advertising Rates page.
Subscriptions and online access
The Sentinel separates print/digital subscription from online account access, and some stories are marked premium. Two things are worth knowing from the site's own notices:
- If you already subscribe but don't have an online account: the site says to "click here to set up your free access." So a current subscriber can activate online access at no extra cost.
- If you're not a subscriber: the site points to a subscribe page to sign up.
The site does not state prices or whether any content is free beyond what's shown, so check the subscribe page for current terms rather than assuming.
Who this is for
Follow or subscribe to the Daily Sitka Sentinel if you live in or care about Sitka and want local government, school, fisheries, election, and community news, plus obituaries and an e-edition of the print paper. Look elsewhere if you mainly want national or international reporting as your primary source — the Sentinel carries those sections, but its purpose and strength are Sitka and Southeast Alaska.