The Salt Lake Tribune

Last updated

The Salt Lake Tribune
The Salt Lake Tribune front page.jpg
The July 27, 2005, front page of The Salt Lake Tribune
Type Daily newspaper (1870–2020)
Weekly newspaper (after 2020)
Format Broadsheet
Owner(s)The Salt Lake Tribune, Inc.
(a non-profit corporation)
EditorLauren Gustus (executive editor)
Founded1870 (as the Mormon Tribune)
Headquarters90 South 400 West
Suite 600
Salt Lake City, Utah 84101
USA
Circulation 74,043 Daily
84,137 Sunday(as of 2015) [1]
ISSN 0746-3502
Website sltrib.com

The Salt Lake Tribune is a newspaper published in the city of Salt Lake City, Utah. The Tribune is owned by The Salt Lake Tribune, Inc., a non-profit corporation. The newspaper's motto is "Utah's Independent Voice Since 1871."

Contents

History

19th century

A successor to Utah Magazine (1868), [2] The Salt Lake Tribune was founded as the Mormon Tribune by a group of businessmen led by former members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) William Godbe, Elias L.T. Harrison and Edward Tullidge, who disagreed with the church's economic and political positions. After a year, the publishers changed the name to the Salt Lake Daily Tribune and Utah Mining Gazette, but soon after that, they shortened it to The Salt Lake Tribune.

Three Kansas businessmen, Frederic Lockley, George F. Prescott and A.M. Hamilton, purchased the company in 1873 and turned it into an anti-Mormon newspaper which consistently backed the local Liberal Party. Sometimes vitriolic, the Tribune held particular antipathy for LDS Church president Brigham Young. In the edition announcing Young's death, the Tribune wrote: [3]

He was illiterate and he has made frequent boast that he never saw the inside of a school house. His habit of mind was singularly illogical and his public addresses the greatest farrago of nonsense that ever was put in print. He prided himself on being a great financer, and yet all of his commercial speculations have been conspicuous failures. He was hierophant, and pretended to be in daily [communion] with the Almighty, and yet he was groveling in his ideas, and the system of religion he formulated was well nigh Satanic.

20th century

In 1901, newly elected United States senator Thomas Kearns, a Roman Catholic, [4] and his business partner, David Keith, [5] secretly bought the Tribune. After Keith died in 1918, the Kearns family bought out Keith's share of the Salt Lake Tribune Publishing Company. Eventually, the parent company became Kearns-Tribune Corporation.

The company began an evening edition in 1902, known as The Salt Lake Telegram. The Telegram was sold in 1914 and reacquired by the Tribune in 1930. It was phased out when the joint operating agreement was formed with the afternoon Deseret News , Salt Lake's daily newspaper owned by the LDS Church, in 1952. [6]

Marquee of The Salt Lake Tribune on the Tribune Building in Downtown Salt Lake City Salt Lake Tribune marquis.jpg
Marquee of The Salt Lake Tribune on the Tribune Building in Downtown Salt Lake City

John F. Fitzpatrick became publisher in 1924, ushering in what became seven decades of peaceful coexistence with the dominant LDS Church. In 1952 theTribune entered into a joint operating agreement with the Deseret News and created the Newspaper Agency Corporation. [7] Fitzpatrick was the architect of NAC at the request of LDS Church President David O. McKay whose newspaper was near bankruptcy at the time. Fitzpatrick died of a heart attack in 1960, and was succeeded by John W. Gallivan, who had been trained as the next publisher from the time he joined the Tribune in 1937. Gallivan often joked with aspiring journalism students, telling them the best way to the publisher's desk was to get yourself left on the doorstep of the owner. (He had been orphaned at the age of five, then taken in by his mother's half-sister, Mrs. Thomas Kearns.) In the late 1950s, in spite of reluctance from John Fitzpatrick about the future of television, Gallivan joined a measured Tribune investment with The Standard Corporation in Ogden, Utah, to build one of the first microwave and cable TV systems across northern Nevada. On weekends, Gallivan traveled by bus to Elko, Nevada, to oversee the construction beginnings. Gallivan and Denver cable investor Bob Magness merged their companies into Tele-Communications Inc. (TCI) which eventually became the largest cable television company in the world. The Tribune's ownership interest in TCI reached nearly 15%, which played a large role in later mergers between the two companies. Gallivan remained as Tribune publisher until 1984, and chairman of the board until 1997. [8]

For almost 100 years, it was a family-owned newspaper held by the heirs of U.S. Senator Thomas Kearns. After Kearns died in 1918, the company was controlled by his widow, Jennie Judge Kearns, and then the newspaper's longtime publisher was John F. Fitzpatrick, who started his career as secretary to Senator Kearns in 1913 and remained publisher until his death in 1960. John W. Gallivan, nephew of Mrs. Kearns, joined the Tribune in 1937 and succeeded Fitzpatrick as publisher in 1960, remaining as chairman until the merger with TCI, Inc. in 1997. The Kearns family owned a majority share of the newspaper until 1997, when the company merged with TCI in an effort to minimize inheritance tax liabilities borne by the two largest shareholders in the Kearns family. A buy-back agreement was put in place, providing for the Kearns family to reacquire The Tribune, after the IRS required a five-year holding period. However, in the interim TCI was merged with AT&T Corporation. After intense pressure from the LDS Church, and intense counter-suits from the Kearns family, the Tribune was subsequently sold by AT&T to Denver, Colorado-based MediaNews Group in 2000. [9]

21st century

In 2000, the Tribune published a 3-part series on the Mountain Meadows Massacre, after a backhoe operator accidentally dug up previously-unknown remains while working on the 1999 Mountain Meadows Monument. [10] The LDS Church's displeasure at the articles' embarrassing disclosures has been cited as motivation for its 2013 alleged attempt to silence the Tribune. [11]

In 2002, the Tribune became mired in controversy after employees sold information related to the Elizabeth Smart kidnapping case to The National Enquirer. Tribune editor James "Jay" Shelledy resigned from his job at the paper amid the fallout of the scandal. Two staffers were also removed from their positions as Tribune reporters.

In 2004 the paper decided to move from its historic location at the downtown Tribune building to The Gateway development. Many people, including several Tribune employees, opposed the move, stating that it would harm the economy of Salt Lake's downtown. The move was completed in May 2005 and Tribune employees were told by editor Nancy Conway, "It is just a building."[ citation needed ]

Bankruptcy and alleged attempt to silence

After emerging from bankruptcy in 2010, MediaNews Group lost control of its ownership to a hedge fund, Alden Global Capital. "The remainder of the Denver-based chain is owned by a consortium of lenders and by Singleton himself." [12]

In 2013, rumors swirled of renegotiations to the 1952 Joint Operating Agreement with the Deseret News, which would have put the Salt Lake Tribune at a marked financial disadvantage, and eventually ensured the Tribune would bleed to death. An anonymous note, delivered in disguised handwriting to Tribune offices in October, alleged that the LDS Church was secretly negotiating with Alden for this aim. Interested parties and local citizens' activist groups subsequently organized, petitioned the US Department of Justice to become involved, and eventually filed a lawsuit alleging anti-trust violations. Critics of the church assert that the efforts to target the Tribune were done with the participation of the church's First Presidency, its highest leadership body. [13]

In 2016, Huntsman Family Investments, LLC, a company controlled by Paul Huntsman, bought The Salt Lake Tribune. [14] Paul Huntsman is the son of industrialist Jon Huntsman Sr. who is chairman of the holding company, and brother of former Utah governor and ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman Jr. [15]

Huntsman ownership

On April 20, 2016, Huntsman Family Investments, a private equity firm headed by Paul Huntsman, son of industrialist Jon Huntsman Sr., announced that it would buy the Tribune. [16] In 2017, the Tribune was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Local Reporting for "a string of vivid reports revealing the perverse, punitive and cruel treatment given to sexual assault victims at Brigham Young University, one of Utah’s most powerful institutions." [17] The team included lead reporter Erin Alberty, managing editor Sheila R. McCann, reporters Jessica Miller and Alex Stuckey and editor-writer Rachel Piper. The package of winning stories also included an investigation into multiple reports that were not properly investigated by Utah State University. [18]

In May 2018, the Tribune laid off over 38% of its newsroom staff, [19] reducing headcount from ninety to fifty-six. [20] This was the fourth round of layoffs since 2011, and the first under the leadership of owner and publisher Paul Huntsman. The reason put forward for this was lower revenue due to decreased circulation and lower profit from online advertisements. [20] Huntsman said that in the two years since he bought the newspaper, advertising revenues had declined 40%. [19]

Conversion to nonprofit

In November 2019 the newspaper won approval from the Internal Revenue Service to become a 501(c)(3) non-profit. [21] It was the first major (and first daily) U.S. newspaper to become a nonprofit. [22]

In October 2020, the newspaper announced it would cease daily print publication at the end of the year, shifting instead to a weekly print product while maintaining a robust online presence. [23] At the time, the paper had approximately 36,000 subscribers, a decline from a daily circulation of close to 200,000. [22] Also in 2020, the Tribune ended its joint partnership with the Deseret News, which had lasted for sixty-eight years. [22]

From 2020 to 2021, the Tribune newsroom staff increased by 23%, with thirty-three reporters on staff in November 2021. The newly nonprofit paper also developed a variety of new projects. [22]

In July 2024, newsroom employees announced their intentions to unionize with the Denver Newspaper Guild and Communications Workers of America. The bargaining unit would represent 31 employees. [24]

Endorsements

In presidential elections, The Salt Lake Tribune endorsed George W. Bush in 2004; [25] Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012; [26] [27] and Hillary Clinton in 2016. [28] The paper discontinued making endorsements for all offices (local, state, and national) in 2019 upon becoming a non-profit corporation as IRS rules forbid endorsements of candidates by 501(c)(3) non-profits. [29]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas S. Monson</span> President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (1927–2018)

Thomas Spencer Monson was an American religious leader, author, and the 16th president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. As president, he was considered by adherents of the religion to be a prophet, seer, and revelator. Monson's early career was as a manager at the Deseret News, a Utah newspaper owned by the LDS Church. He spent most of his life engaged in various church leadership positions and public service.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David O. McKay</span> American religious leader (1873–1970)

David Oman McKay was an American religious leader and educator who served as the ninth president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1951 until his death in 1970. Ordained an apostle and member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in 1906, McKay was an active general authority for nearly 64 years, longer than anyone else in LDS Church history.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Buildings and sites of Salt Lake City</span>

Salt Lake City, Utah has many historic and notable sites within its immediate borders. Although the entire Salt Lake City metropolitan area is often referred to as "Salt Lake City", this article is concerned only with the buildings and sites within the official city limits of Salt Lake City.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">M. Russell Ballard</span> American businessman and religious leader (1928–2023)

Melvin Russell Ballard Jr. was an American businessman and religious leader who served as the Acting President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 2018 until his death in 2023. He had been a member of the church's Quorum of the Twelve Apostles since 1985. As a member of the Quorum of the Twelve, Ballard was accepted by church members as a prophet, seer, and revelator. At the time of his death, he was the third most senior apostle in the church.

<i>Deseret News</i> Newspaper published by the LDS Church

The Deseret News is a multi-platform newspaper based in Salt Lake City, published by Deseret News Publishing Company, a subsidiary of Deseret Management Corporation, which is owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Founded in 1850, it was the first newspaper to be published in Utah. The publication's name is from the geographic area of Deseret identified by Utah's pioneer settlers, and much of the publication's reporting is rooted in that region.

The Newspaper Agency Corporation Inc. is a printing, delivery, and advertising company. It is jointly owned by the Deseret Morning News and The Salt Lake Tribune, the two major daily newspapers in Salt Lake City, Utah.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frank J. Cannon</span> United States Senator from Utah

Frank Jenne Cannon was the first United States Senator from Utah, who served from 1896 to 1899.

The Daily Herald is a daily newspaper that covers news and community events in Utah County, central Utah. Much of the coverage focuses on the Provo-Orem metropolitan area in Utah Valley.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Kearns</span> American politician

Thomas Kearns was an American mining, banking, railroad, and newspaper magnate. He was a US Senator from Utah from 1901 to 1905. Unlike the predominantly Mormon constituents of his state, Senator Kearns was Catholic.

The Deseret News Publishing Company is a publishing company headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. It is a subsidiary of Deseret Management Corporation (DMC), a holding company owned by the Corporation of the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The company publishes the daily Salt Lake City area newspaper, Deseret News, and its weekly inserts the Church News and Mormon Times. It also publishes a semi-weekly Spanish paper, OKespañol, and the Deseret News Church Almanac. The company was incorporated in 1931 to direct the operations of the Deseret News, which until then was owned directly by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. For many years the company operated a jobs press, known as the Deseret News Press, in which they used their presses to publish content for other publishers, such as Deseret Book.

The Church News is a multi-platform supplement and subdivision of the Deseret News, a Salt Lake City, Utah newspaper owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It is published daily online, and weekly as tabloid-sized. Deseret News also provides the news site Of Good Report. It is the only publication by the LDS Church that is entirely devoted to news coverage of the LDS Church.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Utah</span>

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Utah refers to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and its members in Utah. Utah has more church members than any other U.S. state or country. The LDS Church is also the largest denomination in Utah.

George C. Hatch was an American businessman who owned several communications businesses and helped pioneer cable television. He was a founder of Western Microwave Inc., a precursor of Tele-Communications Inc., which spun off media conglomerate Liberty Media, and itself was purchased in 1999 by AT&T, and in turn sold to Charter Communications and then Comcast Corporation. He also championed the preservation of outdoor wilderness areas in the western United States, working with other Utah leaders to establish Capitol Reef and Arches National Parks, expand Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, and create Antelope Island State Park.

John Francis Fitzpatrick was the publisher of The Salt Lake Tribune from 1924 to 1960. He created the Newspaper Agency Corporation (NAC) in 1952.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John W. Gallivan</span>

John W. Gallivan was an American newspaper publisher, cable television pioneer, and civic leader. A major figure in the promotion and development of Salt Lake City and Utah's ski industry, he was instrumental in starting the campaign to bring the 2002 Olympic Winter Games to Salt Lake City. Using his position as publisher of the Salt Lake Tribune, "Jack" Gallivan was the driving force behind numerous civic improvement and development projects including the Salt Palace, the Salt Lake Arts Center, Symphony Hall, The Capitol Theatre, and the promotion of light rail. His many contributions to the economic and cultural life of the city were recognized by the community in the naming of the John W. Gallivan Plaza near the center of downtown.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clark Gilbert</span>

Clark G. Gilbert has been a general authority seventy of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since April 2021 and the Church Commissioner of Education since August of that year. He was the president of BYU–Pathway Worldwide (BYU–PW), an online higher education organization, from its creation in 2017 until August 2021. He was serving as the sixteenth president of Brigham Young University–Idaho (BYU–Idaho) when he was appointed inaugural president of BYU–PW. Previously, Gilbert served as president and CEO of both the Deseret News and Deseret Digital Media, having also served as an executive vice president of Deseret Management Corporation, a professor at Harvard Business School (HBS), and as an associate academic vice president at BYU–Idaho.

The American Party was a political party in Utah from 1904 to 1911. It was designed to counter the influence of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Utah politics and is often described as an anti-Mormon party.

Jennifer Napier-Pearce is an American journalist and former editor of The Salt Lake Tribune. She joined the Tribune in January 2013 as a business writer, before becoming host of the daily video program "Trib Talk" and the weekly radio news show "Behind the Headlines." She was named editor in August 2016. Prior to coming to the Tribune, Napier-Pearce was news director and reporter for KUER and KCPW.

Kirton McConkie is an American law firm headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is the largest law firm in Utah, and it has long served as the external legal counsel for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was ranked the 300th largest law firm in the United States in 2022 by the National Law Journal.

References

  1. ↑ "US Postal Service Statement of Ownership, Management and Circulation (form 3526)". The Salt Lake Tribune. Salt Lake City. October 6, 2015. p. A6.
  2. ↑ Bennion, Sherilyn Cox (1994), "The Salt Lake Tribune", Utah History Encyclopedia, University of Utah Press, ISBN   9780874804256, archived from the original on November 3, 2022, retrieved May 24, 2024, [Godbe, Harrison, Tullidge, and Shearman] joined forces to publish the Mormon Tribune on 1 January 1870 after the Deseret News urged church members to boycott their Utah Magazine, founded two years earlier.
  3. ↑ "Brigham Young As A Ruler". The Salt Lake Daily Tribune. August 30, 1877. p. 2. Retrieved January 12, 2018.
  4. ↑ Murphy, Miriam B. (1994), "Kearns, Thomas", Utah History Encyclopedia, University of Utah Press, ISBN   9780874804256, archived from the original on November 3, 2022, retrieved May 24, 2024
  5. ↑ Powell, Allan Kent (1994), "Keith, David", Utah History Encyclopedia, University of Utah Press, ISBN   9780874804256, archived from the original on March 21, 2024, retrieved May 24, 2024
  6. ↑ Malmquist,The First 100 Years, pp. 323–324.
  7. ↑ Malmquist, The First 100 Years, p.?
  8. ↑ Malmquist,The First 100 Years, pp. 373–376.
  9. ↑ Barringer, Felicity (December 16, 2000). "MediaNews Allowed to Buy Utah Paper from AT&T". The New York Times . Retrieved December 10, 2012.
  10. ↑ The Battle of Salt Lake. American Journalism Review. March 2001. Accessed September 5, 2024.
  11. ↑ Ure, James W. (2018). Stop The Press:How the Mormon Church Tried to Silence the Salt Lake Tribune. Prometheus Books. Chapter 1.
  12. ↑ Beebe, Paul (January 29, 2011). The Salt Lake Tribune.
  13. ↑ Ure, James W. (2018). Stop The Press:How the Mormon Church Tried to Silence the Salt Lake Tribune. Prometheus Books. Chapters 1, 25, 26, and 27.
  14. ↑ Semerad, Tony (April 21, 2016). "Huntsman family buying The Salt Lake Tribune, hopes to ensure 'independent voice for future generations'". The Salt Lake Tribune.
  15. ↑ Rosman, Katherine (May 17, 2019). "Can Paul Huntsman Save The Salt Lake Tribune?". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved November 4, 2019.
  16. ↑ Semerad, Tony (April 20, 2016). "Huntsman family buying The Salt Lake Tribune, hopes to ensure 'independent voice for future generations'". The Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved April 20, 2016.
  17. ↑ "Salt Lake Tribune wins Pulitzer for campus rape coverage, praises victims for sharing their stories". Salt Lake Tribune. April 17, 2017. Retrieved September 28, 2018. Tribune wins Pulitzer
  18. ↑ "The Salt Lake Tribune Staff - The Pulitzer Prizes". April 17, 2017. Local reporting - The Pulitzer Prizes
  19. 1 2 Jasen Lee, Salt Lake Tribune lays off 38 percent of newsroom staff, Deseret News (May 14, 2018).
  20. 1 2 "The Salt Lake Tribune Lays Off One-Third of Newsroom Staff". Associated Press News. May 14, 2018.
  21. ↑ "Salt Lake Tribune gets IRS approval to convert to nonprofit". Associated Press News . Retrieved November 4, 2019.
  22. 1 2 3 4 Scire, Sarah. "Now nonprofit, The Salt Lake Tribune has achieved something rare for a local newspaper: financial sustainability". Nieman Lab. Retrieved November 28, 2021.
  23. ↑ Semerad, Tony (October 26, 2020). "Salt Lake Tribune will move to a weekly print edition in 2021". The Salt Lake Tribune. Archived from the original on October 27, 2020.
  24. ↑ Stefanich, Logan (July 15, 2024). "Salt Lake Tribune newsroom staff seeking to unionize". KSL. Retrieved July 15, 2024.
  25. ↑ Editorial: Bush for president, Salt Lake Tribune (October 24, 2004).
  26. ↑ Mooney, Brian C. (October 19, 2012). "Salt Lake Tribune endorses President Obama over Mitt Romney, who organized city's Olympics". The Boston Globe . Retrieved October 30, 2013.
  27. ↑ "Tribune endorsement: Too Many Mitts". The Salt Lake Tribune. November 5, 2012. Retrieved October 30, 2013.
  28. ↑ Kelsey Sutton, Utah's Salt Lake Tribune endorses Hillary Clinton, Politico (October 12, 2016).
  29. ↑ George Pyle, No more endorsement editorials in The Tribune. Sigh., Salt Lake Tribune (October 29, 2019).

Sources

Further reading

Commons-logo.svg Media related to The Salt Lake Tribune at Wikimedia Commons

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.