SALT LAKE CITY, Utah, Oct. 27, 2020 (Gephardt Daily) — Stop the presses. The Deseret News, Utah’s longest-running newspaper will stop printing and delivering a daily paper sometime early next year.
The D-News made the dramatic announcement Tuesday, following Monday’s revelation by The Salt Lake Tribune that it would stop printing and delivering its daily paper starting Jan. 1, 2021.
The Deseret News published its first edition in 1850.
“Early next year, the newspaper will transition from daily print delivery to two new printed offerings — a reimagined weekly newspaper retaining the Deseret News moniker and a new monthly news magazine called Deseret” the D-News said in a published article. “The Church News will continue in weekly print. Digital delivery will continue uninterrupted.”
The Deseret News, like The Salt Lake Tribune, said it would shift its attention to online news delivery.
The newspapers’ decisions sounded the death knell for their 68-year-old Joint Operating Agreement, which allowed the rival news outlets to share facilities for printing and distribution.
Their decisions to go digital also sounded the death knell for 160 printer and carrier jobs at the papers’ West Valley City printing facility run by Utah Media Group. Employees were told the company will soon cease to exist and were offered severance packages.
The Deseret News said 18 jobs would be cut, including six journalists. Members of the sales staff and visual artists are also being let go.
The Tribune maintained it would not be reducing its current staff of 45, but some employees would be “redeployed.”
