19th century The press On March 31, 1847, while at
Winter Quarters, Nebraska, the LDS Church's
Quorum of the Twelve Apostles authorized
William W. Phelps to "go east and procure a printing press" to be taken to the future Mormon settlement in the
Great Basin. Phelps left Winter Quarters sometime in May, and went to
Boston by way of the former Mormon settlement of
Nauvoo, Illinois. In Boston, with the help of William I. Appleby, the president of the Church's Eastern States Mission, and Church member Alexander Badlam, Phelps was able to procure a
wrought iron Ramage
hand-press,
type, and other required equipment. He returned to Winter Quarters on November 12, 1847, with the press. The press was moved into a small
adobe building (just east of the present site of the
Hotel Utah) that also served as a
coin mint for the settlers. The press was at first used to print the necessary documents (such as laws, records, and forms) used in setting up the provisional
State of Deseret. Because it was meant to be the voice of the State of Deseret, it was called the
Deseret News, and its motto was "Truth and Liberty". It was at first a weekly Saturday publication, and published in "pamphlet form" in hopes that readers would have the papers bound into volumes. Subscription rate was $2.50 for six months. A jobs press, usually called the Deseret News Press, was also set up so the
News could print books, booklets, handbills, broadsides, etc., for paying customers and other publishers. Yet, paper problems still plagued the publishers; paper was very expensive to haul from
California or the East, and attempts at making paper in the valley were still, for the most part, futile. In 1860 a paper-making machine had been purchased, and set-up in the
Deseret Manufacturing Company sugar house factory, but lack of available materials meant a lack of paper. As a result, Brigham Young called George Goddard on a rag-gathering mission. Goddard traveled through the territory collecting rags that would then be turned into paper, and was able to supply enough to keep the
News in production. The
News would sell the paper mill in 1892 to the Granite Paper Mills Company. In 1924, the station was sold to John Cope and his father, F.W. Cope, who formed the Radio Service Corporation of Utah. The LDS Church would later purchase this corporation and go on to create
KSL-TV. The
News, KSL Radio, and KSL Television remain closely linked via the global operating company,
Deseret Management Corporation, which also owns
Bonneville International,
Deseret Book Company, and Deseret Media Company, among other organizations.
The Deseret News Publishing Company The
Deseret News had been under the direct ownership of the LDS Church since 1898, when The Deseret News Company was dissolved. On December 29, 1931, the
Deseret News Publishing Company was incorporated (not to be confused with the Deseret News Publishing Company formed in 1892 by the Cannon family to lease ownership of the paper, and dissolved when the lease was over). Its articles of incorporation, filed with the
Salt Lake County Clerk, provided for 500 shares of stock, all retained by the LDS Church (with the exception of the qualifying directors' shares).
First Sunday edition On May 16, 1948, the
Deseret News would deliver its first Sunday paper. The first Sunday edition contained 154 pages with a new farm, home, and garden section. The first Sunday morning edition of the
Deseret News appeared January 16, 1983, and the paper has published a Sunday edition ever since.
Regent Street headquarters The newspaper moved into its newly constructed headquarters on Regent Street
downtown Salt Lake City in 1997.
Competition with The Salt Lake Tribune As the twentieth century ended, the
Deseret News found itself embroiled in a contentious and often public battle with
The Salt Lake Tribune, centered around the terms of their joint operating agreement, the desire of the
Deseret News to switch from afternoon to morning publication, and ownership changes at the
Tribune. The battle was resolved with the 2000 sale of the
Tribune and with the
Deseret News switching to morning publication and changing its name on June 9, 2003, to the
Deseret Morning News.
Digital era 1990s On January 26, 1995, the
Deseret News launched the Crossroads Information Network, allowing subscribers to access the
News digitally through their dial-up service; digital-only subscriptions were also created. Installation of the Crossroads software—which was mailed on
floppy disk to each subscriber beginning in February 1995—was required on each user's computer. The network also allowed users to access the paper's complete text along with archives back to April 1988, the
Church News and the LDS Church Almanac. The software allowed subscribers to communicate with each other through an email-like system. Eventually the Crossroads Information Network was shut down and its features were moved to DesNews.com, which itself was replaced with DeseretNews.com. The paper's first website, DesNews.com, was launched on September 27, 1995. This allowed
News content to be accessed through an internet website, rather than the software required by Crossroads. The website was meant for those outside the Salt Lake area, who had to pay long-distance calling charges when dialed into the Crossroads network.
2000s On April 13, 2008, Joseph A. Cannon announced in a front page editor's note that the name of the newspaper had been changed back to the
Deseret News, although the
News would continue to be published in the morning.
2010s in
Downtown Salt Lake City, current home of the
News In 2010, the
Deseret News moved its offices out of the Deseret News Building on Regent Street to the broadcast house at the
Triad Center, in order to integrate with
KSL's newsroom. subscriptions inside Utah became available in 2014. In November 2016, Doug Wilks became the editor of the
Deseret News. In October 2016, breaking an 80-year tradition of staying out of U.S. presidential politics, the
Deseret News editorial board urged
Donald Trump to resign his candidacy.
2020s In October 2020, the
Deseret News and
The Salt Lake Tribune announced the dissolution of their decades-long Joint Operating Agreement to share printing facilities. With the end of the agreement, both publications were free to contract printing needs with third parties and chart their futures independent of each other. After the dissolution became apparent, the
Deseret News made the decision to end its daily print edition beginning January 1, 2021 (after just over 153 years of daily publication). The daily print edition was replaced with a new weekly local edition and the company would continue to print the weekly national edition,
Church News, and introduce the
Deseret Magazine. In December 2020, the
Deseret News editorial board again broke political neutrality by denouncing Utah Attorney General
Sean Reyes's decision to support a
lawsuit requesting that the
US Supreme Court withhold the certified vote count from four states following the
2020 presidential election. In 2021, Utah's Senator
Mike Lee demanded a retraction after a statement attributed to him (regarding a phone call held during the
January 6 United States Capitol attack), and published in the
Deseret News on January 7, 2021, was brought up during the
second impeachment trial of Donald Trump. Starting March 23, 2022, the
Deseret News increased publication of the local edition from once to twice a week. However, due to increasing paper and postage costs, the paper discontinued the midweek printing, reverting to publication only once a week in mid-February 2026. The National Edition was also discontinued at this time. ==Products==