The talented and intrepid reporter Dave Hoekstra, a former 30-year writer with the Chicago Sun-Times, spent the better part of three years chronicling the struggle of independent newspapers like my family’s to survive amid a perfect storm of challenges and attacks that have shuttered thousands of locally owned papers or forced them to sell to chains with scavenger instincts that diminished once-vital community organs into ghosts of their former beings.

With penetrating questions, passion and empathy, a ready pen, and a trained observer’s eye for details we miss about ourselves, Hoekstra traveled the nation — from Charleston, South Carolina, to Bakersfield, California, with stops in the Midwest, where he gave great care and interest to my family’s newspaper – the Carroll (Iowa) Times Herald — and its daily pursuit of survival through reinvention and relentless optimism.

The result is an inspiring book that officially released Oct. 11. The title: “Beacons in the Darkness: Hope And Transformation Among America’s Community Newspapers.”

ABC’s rookie drama Alaska Daily gathered a solid audience over its first week of circulation.

Aided by a strong showing on streaming — where the majority of its adult 18-49 audience tuned in — Alaska Daily’s series premiere brought in 8.7 million viewers over its first seven days, according to Nielsen and ABC figures. The Hilary Swank-led drama also drew the biggest audience of the network’s three Thursday shows in Nielsen’s seven-day ratings.

The Oct. 6 premiere had a same-day, on-air audience of 3.59 million viewers and a 0.32 rating in the key ad demographic of adults 18-49. After a week of DVR and on-demand viewing, it grew by 2.68 million viewers to 6.27 million, per Nielsen — passing its Thursday night lead-ins Grey’s Anatomy (6.06 million) and Station 19 (5.82 million).