Larry Persily: Owner & Publisher of the Wrangell Sentinel

Larry Persily is the Anchorage-based owner and publisher of the weekly newspaper the Wrangell Sentinel. Larry and his wife Leslie Murray first purchased that newspaper in 1976 when they moved to Wrangell from Chicago. After almost 50 years as an on-again off-again journalist at various publications such as the Anchorage Times, the Associated Press, the Juneau Empire, & the Anchorage Daily News, Larry re-purchased the Wrangell Sentinel in 2021.

In 2019 he purchased the newspaper in Skagway, Alaska, and then offered to give away the Skagway News instead of running it remotely from Anchorage. He ultimately sold that paper for $20.

He has also worked at the federal, state, and municipal levels on oil and gas and fiscal policy including as staff in the Alaska legislature for Rep. Mike Hawker, an Anchorage Republican, and Rep. John Lincoln, a Kotzebue Independent. Although our focus today is on the Alaska media, we do discuss his time as the Federal Coordinator for Alaska Natural Gas Transportation Projects -- a position he was appointed to by President Barack Obama -- and the prospects for an Alaska natural gas pipeline today.