Geo Beach hosts new series on the History Channel

Geo Beach, perhaps best known for his column, hosts the new weekly series "Tougher in Alaska with Geo Beach" on the History channel, airing nationally on Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET/PT.

Beach, a former logger, firefighter and commercial fisherman, also narrates each hour-long episode and receives credit for additional writing and cameras.

During his journalism career, Beach has won both the Alaska Press Club's award for best radio commentaries for his NPR commentaries and the Suzan Nightingale Best Columnist Award for Large Publications for his "Top o' the Planet" columns in the Anchorage Daily News.

"Beach demonstrates an exhaustive knowledge and understanding of Alaska," says former Los Angeles Times and NPR reporter Bill Drummond, a professor at the School of Journalism at University of California - Berkeley. 

More details at http://www.history.com/minisites/tougher-in-alaska

Check out Jill Homer's blog about snow cycling

Jill Homer is an Alaska reporter based in Juneau. She is doing the Iditarod Trail Invitational.

Her blog is arcticglass.blogspot.com/

KRUA interviews UAA Chancellor Fran Ulmer

University of Alaska Anchorage Chancellor Fran Ulmer will be on KRUA-FM 88.1 Friday morning at 8 taking callers' questions. Call 907-786-6805 to be live on the air and chatting with the chancellor.

Postmark deadline for Press Club contest

Monday, Jan. 21 is a federal holiday (Martin Luther King Jr. Day) so get your entries postmarked by Tuesday, Jan. 22. 

Thanks.

Alaska Professional Communicators' annual contest

See how your work compares with the best!

Have you done something at work this past year that you're proud of? Ever wonder how it would stack up against the best in Alaska and in the nation? Then the Alaska Professional Communicators' 2008 contest is for you.
Alaska Professional Communicators, formerly Alaska Press Women, is made up of both women and men in journalism, writing, broadcasting, public relations, and related fields. For more than 30 years the organization has offered a contest in many categories of communication, with winning entries going to the national competition run by the National Federation of Press Women.
Again this year, the contest will be open to all Alaska resident communicators, not just APC members. The contest includes 78 categories for print journalists, book authors, broadcasters, researchers, and more. There's a separate Collegiate Contest for undergraduate college students.
Winners get feedback from recognized experts from outside Alaska, as well as certificates and recognition from their peers. Entry fees are low--$20 for APC members, $30 for nonmembers.
The deadline for entering most categories is Feb. 8.
Books and related categories are due Jan. 31. Complete contest information.

A worrisome story about the newspaper industry

Miami Herald outsources some advertising production to India