Happy 25th anniversary ABM!(From the Editor)

• Author: Cutler, Debbie

Twenty-five years ago, in the premier issue of Alaska Business Monthly, First National Bank Alaska President and Chairman D.H. "Dan" Cuddy graced the cover. That issue, under the hands of Publisher Robert E Dixon and Editor Paul Laird, discussed many burning issues in Alaska industry, such as Cuddy's three Cs of banking: conservative, consistent and cash on hand; and coal exports; life without Wien in rural areas; Juneau's boom and more.

The issue was black and white, cold-type set where text was sent on disc to a typesetter service who then sent back rolls and rolls of type to ABM's designer, who waxed the rolls and laid it out in her studio.

"It was very time consuming," remembers Vice President and General Manager Jim Martin, who joined the company in 1989. The January 1985 issue was 56 pages long and in its origins had a small but steady readership.

Today, ABM averages just under 175 pages per issue, boasts 80,000 to 100,000 readers monthly, is full color and is seen on planes, in executive hotel rooms, on the train, in government offices and all over Alaska. It is still lead by Martin as general manager, and since 1991 by Vern McCorkle as publisher.

Laird and Dixon formed the magazine after Alaska Business and Industry went out of business. The two former employees of ABI decided a new publication might do better under their direction, and to their credit did a fantastic job. McCorkle, at the time, was a passive...