Salt Lake Trib Bucks Parent Co.; Remains 'Freebie' to Online Readers

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Digital First Media-owned Salt Lake Tribune, for now, will not follow the path of the other dailies in the media conglomerate's holding by erecting a paywall for readers of its online edition, Poynter.org reported.

The Tribune's managing editor told Poynter that competition in the market from media outlets that offer free online access to news figured in the paper's decision to hold off on establishing a paywall. The Deseret News, which also covers Salt Lake City, does not have a paywall.

Salt Lake Tribune Jettisons Nine Newsroom Staffers

(Photo credit: Wikipedia)Utah's largest daily, The Salt Lake Tribune, has announced layoffs of nine editorial employees, a 7.5 percent reduction in newsroom personnel, leaving an editorial staff of 119.

The Trib, owned by Denver-based MediaNews Group, blamed sagging circulation and declining ad pages for the staff reduction, which largely affected the copy desk.

More's the pity to the pink-slipped journalists who are unable to drown their sorrows at the pub past 1 a.m. in Salt Lake City.

Utah Legislators Cruel to Their 'GRAMA'

Image by Getty Images via @daylifeUtah's media outlets are up in the arms after the state's legislature rushed through H.B. 477, which, if signed into law by Republican Gov. Gary Herbert, amends the Government Records Access and Management Act ("GRAMA") [Utah Code Title 63G, Chapter 2] by restricting public access to government records and boosting the reproduction cost of official documents.

According to stories in The Salt Lake Tribune and The Herald Journal, the Senate voted 21-7 last Friday to pass the measure, one day after the House voted 61-12 to enact the 75-page bill. If Gov. Herbert adopts H.B. 477, it will take effect immediately, rather than the more common 60 days after a law is signed. Among its provisions, H.B. 477 excludes electronic messaging, including voice mails and text messages, hikes the fee for members of the press and public to obtain copies of government records, and shields most communications between legislators and their staff members.

Proponents of the measure raced the bill through the legislature to head off a surge in open records requests from the press before the bill took effect. Backers of the bill have complained that the news media was using GRAMA to embarrass lawmakers.

Gov. Herbert has promised carefully to consider the measure before deciding whether to sign it

Mormon Media Makeover: Deseret News Slashes 43% of Editorial Staff

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The Deseret News, Utah's oldest continually publishing daily newspaper, this week cut 57 full-time and 28 part-time staffers, which constitutes 43 percent of its workforce,  including Editor Joe Cannon and Publisher Jim Wall.


According to reports in Editor & Publisher, rival Salt Lake Tribune and the Deseret News itself, the News' newsroom staff will be consolidated with its sister news operations at KSL television and radio. The move goes beyond re-assigning beat coverage and shifting emphasis from print to digital news. 

The Deseret News and Salt Lake Tribune jointly operate MediaOne of Utah (presumably, "Mutual of Utah" sounded too much like an insurance co.), which handles advertising, distribution and printing for both papers, which are editorially independent. The News will create a new editorial advisory board, and has identified its first member--Harvard Business School Prof. Clayton M. Christensen--with an eye toward expanding the paper's scope and influence nationally. Also, the paper will introduce Deseret Connect, a web of non-staff reporters and editors to complement the editorial staff remaining in the newsroom. Reporters will focus on six areas of coverage in the new multimedia enterprise: family, financial responsibility, excellence in education, care for the needy, values in the media, and faith in the community.


The Deseret News is a subsidiary of the Deseret Management Corp., a for-profit entity owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (that's the Mormons, folks).

Judge: Media Can See Dash-Cam Video of Allegedly Drunk Solon

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Utah 3rd District Court Judge Denise Lindberg has upheld a Utah Records Committee decision that a state police dashboard camera video recording the arrest of former Senate Majority Leader Sheldon Killpack is a public record to which the news media should have access, according to a Salt Lake Tribune story.

The Utah Dept. of Public Safety had refused to produce the video, claiming its release would jeopardize Killpack's right to a fair trial of the misdemeanor DUI and failure to signal charges he faced. Killpack was arrested Jan. 15, 2010, and allegedly registered a Breathalyzer blood-alcohol level of .11, above Utah's .08 legal limit. He resigned from the Senate the day after his arrest.

The Department of Public Safety had appealed the Records Committee ruling to the 3rd District Court. State police routinely release dash-cam videos and arrest reports, which weakened the department's argument in the Killpack case.

Corrections Officials Bar Media Interviews of Death Row Inmate

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On June 18, Ronnie Lee Gardner will be hooded, tethered to a chair, and a bullseye target  placed over his heart. Five sharpshooters will aim at the target with .30 caliber rifles, four of which carry live rounds, and fire.

If Gardner, who faces execution for murdering attorney Michael Burdell during a courthouse escape attempt on April 2, 1985, in the course of which he also wounded bailiff Nick Kirk, feels remorse toward the victim's loved ones or has any thoughts about his incarceration or previous crimes, he will take them to his grave. That's because Utah corrections officials, deviating from past practices, will not permit news media interviews of Gardner, according to The Salt Lake Tribune (www.sltrib.com).

Utah law empowers prison officials to restrict communications with an inmate provided a "reasonable institutional policy" underlies the decision limiting access. Corrections officials contend that permitting media interviews would unduly focus attention on the criminal while ignoring innocent victims of his crime.

Opponents of the move argue that forbidding media interviews violates Gardner's First Amendment rights. At the time of his failed escape attempt, Gardner was appearing in court on 1984 charges of robbery and murder at a Salt Lake City tavern.