The publisher and editor of a small Southeast Alaska newspaper has separated himself from the news operation as he runs for local office.
Tom Morphet is running for a seat on the Haines Borough Assembly and says that after nearly 30 years with the Chilkat Valley News — and its owner since 2012 — he plans to leave by mid-2017 regardless of the outcome of the election.
"I'm an old pen-and-ink guy and the world is changing to this digital revolution, and I'm not that interested in that," Morphet said, adding that he likes the idea of a millennial taking over.
He's received questions from the public about the potential conflict of interest brought up by running a newspaper and also running for local government.
"Anybody can run for office and anybody can run a newspaper," Morphet said. "Any reporter worth his salt, if I came in and said, 'Write the story this way,' would probably quit. I wouldn't trust a reporter who wouldn't do that."
In a Chilkat Valley News editorial on Aug. 25, Morphet wrote that the perceived conflict that comes with being publisher while running his campaign "would certainly put me in an awkward spot, particularly regarding reporting or editorializing on borough news."
One reporter there, Karen Garcia, even quit amid news of his campaign, Morphet said in the editorial, "because she believed I could not run without damaging the credibility of the newspaper."
Morphet is now acting only as publisher, no longer works in the paper's office and said he has separated his income from the newspaper's.
"It's not unusual in a town this small for a person to wear many hats," Morphet said.
He has hired a reporter to fill in for the next five weeks. If Morphet loses in the Oct. 4 election, he said he'll go back to working at the Chilkat Valley News as he continues the search for a buyer. If he wins, he will remain a detached owner with no editorial input until he finds someone to buy the paper, he said.