Upcoming Editorial ✎
Want a sneak peek of what’s running in the July 2025 edition? Check out the headlines and summaries below.
Also, if you’re looking even further ahead, our August and September 2025 initial lineup is ready for you to view.
Editorial Focus
Best of Alaska Business | Alaskan-Owned
Oil & Gas, Finance, Healthcare, Mining
Deadlines
Space: May 19, 2025
Art: May 27, 2025
Editorial Content: May 12, 2025
♦ July Special Section ♦
Best of Alaska Business
BOAB Winners
More voters than ever before chose their favorites in forty-one categories. Celebrate the best of Alaska businesses, from contractors and coffee spots to pharmacies and food trucks.
Best Corporate Citizen
Companies invest time, money, and other resources to improve the communities in which they operate, and it has made an impact on our readers. Learn a little more about the activities of three of Alaska’s excellent corporate citizens.
Best Startups Profiles
The only category a business can win once is Best Startup. Find out which three new ventures from 2024 found favor with voters.
Martial Arts & Yoga Studios
Alaska Business introduced several new categories to the Best of Alaska Business survey this year, including martial arts and yoga studios. Learn more about how the winners of those are helping Alaskans keep themselves fit and safe.
Quickfire Q&A
Learn more about several BOAB winners as they answer three quick questions: What is your company best at? What makes your company unique? What’s upcoming for your company that you’re most excited about?
That Alaska Sound
This year our readers nominated three musicians as the best Alaska has to offer, and Alaska Business has found a talented musical group set to perform at our July Best of Alaska Business event. Learn more about some of the Alaskans building the soundscape in the 49th State.
40th Anniversary: Answering Cover Questions
In its forty-year history, how many times has this magazine asked important questions about oil and gas, fisheries, and the Southeast economy? What has happened since then? Can hindsight yield more up-to-date answers?
Oil & Gas: Cook Inlet Update
A summary of current and anticipated Cook Inlet oil and gas activities.
Finance: Economists on Staff
Large financial institutions often invest in having one or more economists on staff. How do economists improve a bank or credit union’s bottom line, and how does that ultimately serve its members or customers?
Healthcare: Award-Winning Hospitals
Alaska’s hospitals have won multiple awards for their services, ranging from a variety of specialities to excelling at patient care. Learn more about how Alaska’s healthcare centers strive to be the best.
Mining: Alaska Critical Minerals Collaborative
The Alaska Critical Minerals Collaborative, based at the UAF Geophysical Institute, is bringing together researchers and labs from across the university to accelerate critical mineral discovery, characterization, and extraction in the state. Learn more about the collaborative and how it’s addressing access to the materials necessary for national security and industry.
Nonprofit: Food Security
Guest author Leah Moss explores the Alaska Food Policy Council’s efforts to improve Alaska’s food system, making it healthier, more secure, and more self-reliant. To that end, the nonprofit has several initiatives and programs it is launching to connect Alaskan farmers and food manufacturers with resources to build, expand, or market their business.
Tourism: Riverboat Discovery Turns 75
The Riverboat Discovery launched in 1950 and has been sharing Alaska’s Interior with guests and telling the story of the people who live here for seventy-five years. Get to know the multi-generation family business with roots back to the Klondike gold rush.
Marketing: Public Outreach for Small Businesses
Small business owners do it all, including communicating with the public about new locations, products, and services. What are the pitfalls and best practices of releasing a message to the public?
Professional Services: Commercial Real Estate Management
Real estate management involves the operation, control, and maintenance of real estate properties; who provides these essential services in Alaska?
Small Business: Sustainable Startups
This article highlights innovative startups focused on sustainability, renewable energy, and eco-friendly products, including their opportunities, challenges, and impact on the market and environment.
♦ August Special Section ♦
Oil & Gas
Increasing North Slope Production
Nuna has recently started production, Pikka may start production oil ahead of schedule, and other efficiencies in Prudhoe Bay may lead to more oil. Learn more about the efforts of North Slope operators to increase the amount of oil flowing through TAPS.
40th Anniversary: Oil Booms and Busts
Alaska’s economy has relied on oil almost since statehood, and that reliance has led to multiple booms and busts as we’ve contended with the reality of an economy based on one commodity. What have we learned, what have we done, and is our future looking any more stable?
Well and Reservoir Data and Engineering
Randomly drilling for oil would be irresponsible and expensive, which is why oil exploration and production is driven by data. Learn more from the experts about how they ensure oil is discovered and produced safely, efficiently, and economically.
Equipment and Equipment Services
Oil and gas development and production is a highly specialized field that requires specific equipment that needs to be rigorously maintained. Several Alaska businesses have found their niche helping the operators operate.
Overland Transport
Moving people and materials to and around the North Slope is not for the faint of heart—or the inexperienced. Alaska Business learns more about the best practices of the North Slope’s transporters.
Legal Elite
Alaska Business announces the 2025 Legal Elite, Alaska’s best lawyers as nominated by their peers.
Legal: Creating an LLC
Alaska Business shares legal insights on when, why, and how to set up a limited liability corporation. And why does “LLC” need to be part of the name?
Legal: Litigation
The legal elite practice in a wide range of categories, but a relatively small percentage of top lawyers specialize as litigators, though that’s often the public’s idea of what all lawyers do. What does it mean for a lawyer to specialize in litigation?
Construction: Contract Disputes
Alaska’s legal experts provide their insight on how contractors can be aware of their rights and responsibilities during contract disputes.
Military: Investing in Innovation
The US military encourages innovation at all levels within its branches. For example, there are sergeants stationed in Alaska in charge of innovation, often partnering with civilian vendors. What are the opportunities and processes for innovation in the armed forces, how are they partnering with civilians, and what are some of the successful innovations that have been implemented?
Transportation: Port of Alaska Modernization Project
The Don Young Port of Alaska is essential in facilitating the movement of goods into Alaska. We provide an update on the project to modernize its aging infrastructure.
Nonprofit: Economic Impact of the Nonprofit Sector
The Foraker Group has published the 2025 Foraker Nonprofit Economic Impact Report, which provides rich data on how Alaska’s nonprofit organizations participate in the economy.
Telecom & Tech: Education and Job Creation to Combat Outmigration
MTA is making efforts, through apprenticeship programs and community outreach strategies, to address the outmigration trend in Alaska that is affecting large and small businesses.
Professional Services: Crisis Communication
In the face of disasters and crises, information is a lifeline that can save lives and reduce the impact of such events. Crisis communication raises awareness of imminent threats and shares safety instructions with the public in times of crisis. It involves getting timely and accurate information to the right people using the right channel, which is critical for preparedness, response, and recovery efforts.
Mining: REEs in Seaweeds
A UAF-led research team secured a nearly $2 million grant to explore if seaweeds in Southeast are absorbing rare earth elements from a nearby rich deposit. This article will share the exciting results the project has uncovered thus far.
Education: Little Diomede
Diomede School, located on Little Diomede Island, is guided by nine school staff, who strive to provide their students with a top-tier education.
Editorial Focus
Oil & Gas | Education
Construction, Military, Transportation, Legal Elite
Deadlines
Space: June 20, 2025
Art: June 27, 2025
Editorial Content: June 10, 2025
Editorial Focus
Entrepreneurship| Retail
Environmental, Fisheries, Telecom & Tech, Tourism
Deadlines
Space: July 21, 2025
Art: July 28, 2025
Editorial Content: July 10, 2025
♦ September Special Section ♦
Entrepreneurship
Building Networks
Several organizations in Alaska host or organize events for entrepreneurs to gather with others in the business community to meet, learn, and form relationships. Learn more about valuable opportunities to build a robust professional network.
Startup Accelerators
Startup accelerators share a mission to help small businesses build their business, sometimes through capital, but also through other methods. Get to know a few of Alaska’s accelerators.
Keeping the Value of an Acquired Business
Acquired companies are often merged into existing enterprises, but not always. Guest Author Christian Muntean explains how to retain the value of an acquired company that is not being purchased as a subsidiary or merged into an existing business.
New Survival Suit
Diego Jacobson, owner of White Glacier, has developed a cold-water survival suit that helps those stranded in Arctic waters to potentially survive for five days while waiting for aid.
Alaska Adaptable Housing
At the University of Alaska 2025 Arctic Innovation Competition, Alaska Adaptable Housing took first place for its work exploring innovative solutions for housing in rural Alaska. The organization is now moving forward with its adaptable foundation system.
Environmental: Fish and Wildlife Evaluations
Most permitting processes require an environmental impact statement. The impact on the environment is determined through a study of the environment, but what does that study entail? What data is gathered, how is it gathered, and how does that vary from project to project?
Fisheries: Profiting Off Waste
Processing fish into value-added goods results in a significant amount of fish waste, which is generally deposited back into the ocean. In an effort to better utilize the whole fish, several Alaska companies have found ways to add value to fish byproducts.
Telecom & Tech: Ecommerce Trends
Ecommerce saw a significant bump in activity during the pandemic, and the trend is expected to continue as the accelerated use of AI, AR/VR, livestreaming, social commerce, and voice search enhance the shopping experience. This represents an opportunity for entrepreneurs to engage in online commerce, which has a lower barrier of entry than traditional retailing.
Tourism: Bike Tours
A relatively small portion of Alaska is connected by road, but since Alaska is huge, even that small road system offers abundant opportunities for cyclists to see the 49th state. For those visiting Alaska, several cycling tour outfits offer rentals, itineraries, tour packages, or all of the above to highlight Alaska.
40th Anniversary: Retail in Alaska
We launched the Top 49ers in 1985, and that year Carr-Gottstein Foods topped the list, and one of the oldest operating companies in Alaska is Alaska Commercial Co. Retail has a long, rich history in Alaska, and this article will provide highlights of the evolving Alaska retail landscape.
Retail: Re-loved Retail
Guest Author Lincoln Garrick provides an overview of Alaska’s secondhand, resale, and consignment stores.
Retail: Consignment + Food in the Valley
Consignment stores sell items on behalf of their owners, creating a central marketplace that is convenient for sellers and buyers alike; in the Matanuska-Susitna Valley, a striking number of consignment stores also sell food. What’s led to this trend, and how is it improving the bottom line?
Retail: Refilleries
Much of our daily waste comes from the food that we consume. Many foods and food products are packaged for the convenience of the buyer, but some Alaska retailers are trying to reduce waste by providing their customers with little to no-waste options for buying many foods. Discover what refillery options may be available in your community.
