Deseret News - History

History

The Deseret News was first published on June 15, 1850. It was named Deseret News because it was the voice of the then State of Deseret.

Originally a weekly paper, the Deseret News became a semi-weekly in October 1865, and was named the Deseret Evening News. That title reverted in 1920 to Deseret News. The paper began publishing as an afternoon daily in 1922 and included its first Sunday edition.

After World War II the Deseret News, The Salt Lake Tribune and the Salt Lake Telegram were all struggling financially, but no more than the Deseret News. In 1952 the owners of the News (LDS Church) and Tribune (Thomas Kearns Family) entered into a joint operating agreement (JOA), where each published separate editorial material while sharing printing, advertising and circulation costs. This JOA was the brainchild of Tribune Publisher John F. Fitzpatrick who helped LDS President David O. McKay ensure the continuation of the Deseret News. As its architect, Fitzpatrick knew that this NAC arrangement would also benefit the Tribune. The News stopped Sunday publication for several years; subscribers received a Sunday Tribune instead. The Deseret News also purchased the afternoon Salt Lake Telegram from the Tribune. The Telegram was discontinued, and into the mid-1960s, the afternoon paper's nameplate read: The Deseret News and Salt Lake Telegram.

Deseret News reporter Robert Mullins won a Pulitzer Prize in 1962 for local reporting "for his resourceful coverage of a murder and kidnapping at Dead Horse Point State Park".

The online edition of the paper, DeseretNews.com, was launched in September 1995.

The newspaper moved into its newly constructed headquarters in downtown Salt Lake City in 1997.

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 News switching to morning publication and changing its name on June 9, 2003 to the Deseret Morning News.

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.

In 2010 the Deseret News began publishing El Observador, a three-issues-per-week Spanish-language newspaper, with the weekend edition emphasizing features, family and entertainment.

In August 2010 the Deseret News announced it would be moving its offices out of the Deseret News Building to the broadcast house in the Triad Center, so they could integrate with KSL's newsroom.