Virginia Farmier

Notable work and positions

Fairbanks Daily News-Miner - Publisher
Helen E. Snedden Foundation - Executive Director and Trustee
True North Business Services - Owner

Biography

Virginia Farmier is publisher of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, Alaska's oldest continuously operating daily newspaper, and executive director and sole trustee of the Helen E. Snedden Foundation, the nonprofit that owns it. Farmier began working part-time in the News-Miner's accounting department at age 16 while attending Lathrop High School in Fairbanks. After graduating from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, she became the paper's office manager and comptroller and later its chief financial officer, serving from 1984 until 1992, when the paper was sold. Helen Snedden, widow of former News-Miner publisher Charles W. Snedden, appointed Farmier trustee of the foundations created from her estate after her 2012 death. In late 2015, the Helen E. Snedden Foundation, with Farmier as sole trustee, purchased the News-Miner and the Kodiak Daily Mirror; the sale closed in early 2016. Farmier was named publisher of the News-Miner in 2023, succeeding Richard Harris. She is a certified public accountant and owner of the Fairbanks accounting firm True North Business Services.

Career highlights

• Publisher, Fairbanks Daily News-Miner Named 2023.
• Purchase of the News-Miner and Kodiak Daily Mirror 2015-2016 · Led the Helen E. Snedden Foundation's acquisition of both newspapers, returning the News-Miner to local, nonprofit ownership connected to its founding family.
• Executive Director, Helen E. Snedden Foundation Oversees the foundation's ownership of the newspapers and its community grantmaking.