Under Snedden's leadership, the News-Miner became one of the first papers in Alaska to print in color and survived a fire and the biggest flood in Fairbanks history.

Major settlements in the circulation area include the city of Fairbanks and the towns of North Pole, Delta Junction, Healy, Fort Yukon, and Tok.

[9] The paper's coverage centers on local news with moderate reporting on state issues that affect Fairbanks and the surrounding area.

In 1901, trader Ebenezer Barnette sailed up Alaska's Tanana River in hopes of establishing a trading post on the trail connecting the coastal town of Valdez with the gold-mining community of Eagle.

Other miners and suppliers arrived, attracted by the gold, and Barnette named the settlement "Fairbanks", after Indiana senator and later Vice President of the United States Charles W.

Printer George M. Hill, who had been working in Dawson City, packed up his small press and traveled to Fairbanks in early 1903.

[12]: 7  The paper was 10 pages and had multiple advertisements, including one proclaiming that an election would be held on November 10 of that year for the purpose of incorporating the town.

[12]: 8  On the front page was a statement of policy: The News is intended to cover an unoccupied field in the rich interior of this truly wonderful country, and its career is entented (sic) upon with a realizing sense of the grave responsibility which is attached to such a task.

[12]: 10 Rather than wait for replacement equipment, Barnette purchased the press of a newly arrived editor, William Fentress Thompson, who had intended to set up his own newspaper.

As his legal bills added up, Barnette decided to lease the Fairbanks Daily News to a group of local businessmen.

[12]: 17  That same year, the campaign to elect Alaska's first delegate to Congress was under way, and one of the candidates, Jack Corson, purchased one-third of the newspaper.

[12]: 23  Competition among the three newspapers was intense, and they often clashed about issues such as city council meetings, a permanent bridge over the Chena River, and the mineral prospects of the town of Iditarod, where gold had just been discovered.

[12]: 25  Thompson's return coincided with a series of small gold discoveries at Livengood and Shushanna that boosted the Fairbanks economy, as gold-seekers bought supplies in the town.

Partially because of the scandal, Gaustad was unable to sell the shares he held an option for, and Thompson returned to Alaska in spring 1916 to reassume his role as publisher.

[12]: 31  Two years later, Thompson and the News-Miner strongly protested the city's order to evict the prostitutes living in a regulated district within Fairbanks.

The conflict arose when two competing candidates for political office attempted to buy the paper's editorial support with pledges of money.

Nordale was reinstated as editor on February 1, 1927, vindicated by the candidate's indictment on four counts of violating the federal Corrupt Practices Act.

[12]: 43  Though Lathrop promised to inject money into the News-Miner, his strong Republican leanings opposed those of Nordale, a confirmed Democrat.

[12]: 49  Fairbanks benefited from a military construction boom as the United States built the Northwest Staging Route to ferry Lend-Lease aircraft to the Soviet Union.

The post-war boom caused a sudden shortage of newsprint, as paper mills were not able to meet the demand of a growing number of newspapers nationwide.

This shortage caused the News-Miner to run short until Lathrop used his industrial connections to divert a shipment from a newspaper that was going out of business.

Prior to the 1948 election, Lathrop believed Republican presidential candidate Thomas Dewey would handily defeat Democratic incumbent Harry Truman.

In order to assist that process, he appointed William Strand, a war correspondent for the Chicago Tribune, as the News-Miner's new editor.

[12]: 59  The new equipment also allowed for larger print jobs, and Snedden introduced an annual Progress Edition that was intended to be distributed outside Alaska in order to attract business and industry to the state.

[12]: 60  Firemen rushed to the scene to put out the blaze and did so quickly, but not before the television and radio studios on the top floors of the building were destroyed.

[12]: 60 In 1964, the largest earthquake ever recorded in the United States struck Anchorage and southern Alaska, cutting communications to the outside world.

To house the new press, which could not fit in the Lathrop Building, Snedden ordered the construction of a new printing facility and office—named the Aurora Building—north of the Chena River.

The water was three inches deep throughout the paper's offices and even deeper in the press and boiler rooms, which were slightly below that raised level.

This factor, and the need for costly upgrades to expand the paper onto the Internet, led to a decision to sell the News-Miner to Dean Singleton and Richard Scudder, co-founders of the MediaNews Group newspaper chain.

The drawing of Sourdough Jack is always paired with a comment on a news story, pun, or joke, apparently having been spoken by the figure.