The Wrangell Sentinel brought on their new reporter and photographer, Mark Robinson in October. The small, weekly newspaper is Alaska’s oldest continuously published newspaper.
KSTK’s Colette Czarnecki chatted with Robinson to get a glimpse into his life, a rare occasion since he’s usually focused on other people’s stories. He says his experience in journalism has been interesting.
This conversation has been edited for brevity and clarity.
My father was very well known in broadcast journalism because he was the anchorman in the DC area when I was growing up. Then he later went to work at ABC News and became the first African American to regularly host a nightly news broadcast. So his name was very well known. And that can be a little intimidating when you’re thinking about going into that sort of field. He casts a long shadow.
Where are you from originally?
I’m originally from Central Virginia. Born in Richmond. I lived in Washington, DC for a few years as a toddler until my parents got divorced. But I was always drawn back to Washington, DC, which I always felt a connection to and lived there for a good long time. I have also spent a couple of years in Fargo, North Dakota and Minneapolis, St. Paul.
Can you talk about your previous journalism work?
When I was in Richmond, VA, before I ended up moving back to the DC area, I was working at a public radio station, and I was basically working nights, basically a board operator and I would jus run the tape shows with doing a little announcement for news and weather and things like that. That was a taste of something my father originally started also in radio. He went by his radio name, Mark Cabot. My full name is Mark Cabot Robinson. So in a way, I’m named after him, just differently. He’s Max Robinson. I’m Mark Robinson.
When I was a little kid, I said I wanted to be Clark Kent so I can be both a reporter and a superhero, because I thought, well, that’s the best of both worlds. I basically sort of backed into it, because when I was in Fargo I started doing editorial cartoons.
When I came back to the DC area, I submitted for a job with the Montgomery County Sentinel in Rockville, MD.
So you draw?
I do draw. I’m a cartoonist. I have been ever since I was very little. I love comic books. I love cartoons, animated animation, anime and manga. I’m a big fan of Charles Schulz’s Peanuts comic strip and I basically have a lot of trivia knowledge about all things comics. In addition, I also love to listen to theme songs and movie soundtracks.
What inspired you to come here?
I was looking for a change of pace, looking for an adventure. I came late to journalism. But I just felt like I wanted to do more, especially in terms of print journalism. So I just started looking and I saw an advertisement for the Wrangell Sentinel. They were looking for someone to come in as a reporter and I went ahead and applied.
What does your day look like at the Sentinel here in Wrangell?
I get to work and I start looking for things to report on that are happening in town, whether it’s related to education, the school board, finding out about what games are going to be played, usually during the weekend and finding feature stories.
Would you say journalism is a work of service?
I definitely would. I think that it’s not about me, it’s about the story. It’s about the person who’s trying to do this thing or that. So I just want to let people know about it and not get in the way of it.
Do you have a memorable moment so far that you’ve experienced here?
I had taken photos of the Christmas boat parade and the picture that got in was one that I felt both lucky and blessed to have gotten of it (fireworks) exploding over a trawler just as it was passing through. I had a resident stop by the office to pat me on the back and congratulate me on the photo. She thought it was well done and she just wanted to let me know that. I was very struck by that.
What is a story that you worked on that you’re proud of?
That’s a good question. Story I’ve worked on that I was proud of? I was proud of being able to report on my first election, which would have been back in 2008. We had local elections and I was trying to keep everything straight about what was happening.
In terms of things here, I liked being able to write Syler Webster, the fourth grader who had the Pokémon collection. I like being able to talk about that because I’m not a Pokémon collector, but I like anime. I also like being able to tell a little bit of the history of Pokémon because it’s actually gotten that old now where it started in ’96 and here we are in 2024. So it’s about 30 years old now.
I imagine you are a people person.
In some ways, yes and I’m something of an introvert. I was very shy as a kid but there’s a part of me that’s kind of like a performer. Another one of the jobs I once did, of a variety of different things, I’ve worked in bookstores, but I also used to do a lot of storytelling, especially for young children. When I was working at Borders Books and Music, which went out of business about 15 years ago, they had a children’s section and I used to do story time every Thursday. I would have a packed audience of getting young kids to clap and cheer or sing songs with me.
Anything else you’d like to add?
If whoever works the movie theme songs at KSTK ever needs a hand, I’m open to helping out because I have a whole collection of the most esoteric theme songs. People are like, ‘That’s still around?’ So that’s one thing and I would like to maybe write a great mystery novel one of these days.
