19th century A successor to
Utah Magazine (1868),
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
independent newspaper which consistently backed the local
Liberal Party. Sometimes vitriolic, the
Tribune wrote disparagingly about LDS Church president
Brigham Young. In the edition announcing Young's death, the
Tribune wrote:
20th century In 1901, newly elected
United States senator Thomas Kearns, a
Roman Catholic, and his business partner, David Keith, 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.
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 the
Tribune entered into a joint operating agreement with the
Deseret News and created the
Newspaper Agency Corporation. 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 Tribunes 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. 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.
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. The LDS Church's displeasure at the articles' embarrassing disclosures has been alleged as motivation for its 2013 alleged attempt to silence the Tribune. 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."
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." In 2013, rumors swirled of renegotiations to the 1952 Joint Operating Agreement with the Deseret News, which may have put the Salt Lake Tribune at a marked financial disadvantage, potentially eventually bankrupting the Tribune. 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.
Huntsman ownership On April 20, 2016, Huntsman Family Investments, LLC, a
private equity firm controlled by Paul Huntsman, bought
The Salt Lake Tribune. 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 China and later Russia
Jon Huntsman Jr. 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." 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. In May 2018, the
Tribune laid off over 38% of its newsroom staff, reducing headcount from ninety to fifty-six. 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. It was the first major (and first daily) U.S. newspaper to become a nonprofit. 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. At the time, the paper had approximately 36,000 subscribers, a decline from a daily circulation of close to 200,000. 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. ==Endorsements==