 The July 27, 2005 front page of The Salt Lake Tribune |
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| Type | Daily newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Broadsheet |
| Owner | MediaNews Group |
| Editor | Nancy Conway |
| Founded | 1871 (as the Mormon Tribune) |
| Headquarters | 90 South 400 West Suite 700 Salt Lake City, Utah 84101  United States |
| Circulation | 128,186 Daily 149,320 Sunday |
| ISSN | 0746-3502 |
| Official website | sltrib.com |
The Salt Lake Tribune is the largest-circulated daily newspaper in the U.S. city of Salt Lake City, Utah. The Salt Lake Tribune is distributed by Newspaper Agency Corporation, which also distributes the Deseret Morning News. The Tribune — or "Trib," as it is locally known — is currently owned by the Denver-based MediaNews Group. For almost 100 years it was a family owned newspaper held by the heirs of U.S. Senator Thomas Kearns. After Thomas Kearns died in 1918 the company was controlled by his widow, Jennie Judge Kearns and son Thomas F. Kearns. The newspaper's long time publisher was John F. Fitzpatrick who started his career as Senator Kearns' secretary in 1913.
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A successor to Utah Magazine(1868), the publication was founded in 1870 as the Mormon Tribune by a group of businessmen led by former LDS Church members William Godbe, Elias L.T. Harrison and John Tullidge who disagreed with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' economic and political positions. After a year its name was changed to the Salt Lake Daily Tribune and Utah Mining Gazette. Not too long after that, the name was shortened to simply The Salt Lake Tribune. In 1902 the company started up an evening edition, known as The Salt Lake Telegram. The Telegram was from the beginning a money loser, was sold in 1914 and reaquired by the Tribune in 1930 only to be sold to and merged into the Deseret News in 1952 .[1]
In 1873 three Kansas businessmen, Fred Lockley, George F. Prescott and A.M. Hamilton, purchased the paper and the Tribune became known as an anti-Mormon organ which consistently backed the local Liberal Party. Sometimes vitriolic, the Tribune held particular antipathy for Latter-day Saints President Brigham Young. In the edition announcing Young's death, the Tribune wrote,
In 1901 newly-elected Roman Catholic United States Senator Thomas Kearns and his business partner David Keith, secretly bought the Tribune. Kearns made strides to eliminate the paper's anti-Mormon overtones, and succeeded in maintaining good relationships with the mostly-LDS state legislature which had elected him to the Senate. Upon Keith's death in 1918 the Kearns family bought out Keith's share of the Salt Lake Tribune Publishing Company.
John F. Fitzpatrick, became publisher in 1924. In 1952, the Tribune entered into a joint operating agreement with the Deseret News, Salt Lake's daily newspaper (which was owned by the LDS Church), creating the Newspaper Agency Corporation.[2] In 1960 Fitzpatrick died unexpectedly from a heart attack and an emergency session of the Kearns-Tribune Corp. board elected John W. Gallivan, publisher. He remained in that position until 1984 and chairman of the board until 1997.[3]
The Kearns family owned a majority share of the newspaper until 1997 when they sold it to Tele-Communications Inc., a multimedia corporation, which was later acquired by AT&T. The Tribune was subsequently sold to Denver, Colorado-based MediaNews Group which is partially owned by publisher William Dean Singleton.
In 2002 the Tribune was mired in controversy after employees sold leaked inside information related to the Elizabeth Smart case to The National Enquirer. Tribune editor James "Jay" Shelledy resigned from his job at the paper amidst the fallout of the scandal. Two staffers also were removed from their positions as Tribune reporters.
In 2004, the paper decided to move out of its historic location at the downtown "Tribune" building and relocate to the Gateway Mall. 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]
On January 16, 2010, the Associated Press reported that Affiliated Media, parent of MediaNews will file for Chapter II bankruptcy protection. Under the plan, company debt would fall to $165 million from about $930 million. Senior lenders would swap debt for stock.
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