Alaska may stop requiring liquor license applicants to buy newspaper ads as required public notice

Anyone applying for an Alaska liquor license or transferring one has to buy advertising: three weeks of notices in a newspaper of general circulation, or three weeks of spots on a local radio station. A draft regulation before the state's Alcoholic Beverage Control Board would end that requirement. Applicants would post the application at two more locations near the building instead.

The draft would also repeal the provision letting a local governing body or village council ask for the announcement in the area's predominant languages. The state alcohol office's memo disposes of that in nine words: "Subsection (b) is repealed and is a conforming change."

None of it is required by law. State statute leaves newspaper, radio and television notice to the board's discretion, and requires notice in more than one language only when the board decides it is necessary.

The draft is one of five alcohol regulations written under Administrative Order 360, which Gov. Mike Dunleavy signed in August 2025 directing state agencies to cut regulatory requirements by 15 percent before the end of 2026. The order's stated rationale is removing what it calls complex and outdated requirements for newspaper advertising in a digital age.

The board took the draft up Sept. 1. If it approves, the draft goes to the Department of Law, and public comment opens only after that review. The board meets next on Nov. 17.