In a broad sense, the roots of the Church News extend back to the beginning of the Deseret News itself.
Founded just three years after the arrival in the Salt Lake Valley of Brigham Young and the Pioneers, "the Mountain West's first newspaper" served a homogenous populace, virtually 100 percent Mormon.In the latter 19th and early 20th centuries, stories about the appointment of a new stake president in Logan or the exploits of LDS missionaries in Tennessee received as much play in the Deseret News as the doings of the Salt Lake City Council or the arrest of a notorious outlaw.
By 1931, the Utah population - especially in Salt Lake County - had become increasingly cosmopolitan. It was clear that the newspaper must serve a broad-based readership composed of all creeds. It was advisable, therefore, to contain stories about day-to-day events of the LDS Church in a weekly section, although major church-related events, such as general conference, would still get prominent treatment in the other news section of the paper.
Thus, on April 4, 1931, the Deseret News Church Section was born.
The new section carried the Deseret News nameplate; boxes on either side of the nameplate identified it as the "Church Section." It had eight pages that were half the size of regular newspaper pages. There was no inaugural proclamation, no lofty mission statement.
Page 1 of the first edition carried a drawing depicting the Book of Mormon account of Christ's visit to the Nephites, in keeping with the Easter season. It was accompanied by a lengthy article by Elder B.H. Roberts, a prominent LDS theologian and member of the First Council of the Seventy.
Typical items in early issues were texts of radio sermons by church leaders; reports of stake conference proceedings, an article about the Hill Cumorah, newly lanscaped with "Cumorah" spelled out in shrubbery; and a story about a new correlation program aimed at serving every member in each ward.
Six months after the Church Section was launched, Henry A. Smith, a general assignment reporter, became its full-time editor. For many years, he was the section's one-man staff.
Over the next 37 years, under Smith's direction, the section flourished, increasing to as many as 24 pages. By March 28, 1942, the name was changed to "Weekly Church Edition."
On June 5, 1943, it became the Church News. It continued to be a weekly supplement to the Deseret News, but it became available separately by subscription outside of Utah. Circulation for the Church News soon reached 12,000 beyond the regular Saturday Deseret News. The section began to draw on the efforts of correspondents.
By the late 1940s. the Church News took on a livelier appearance, with more prominent display of photos and the use of color graphic devices. It also began to include short historical, scriptural or personal vignettes. Such vignettes have continued in one form or another since then.
In 1948, a regular editorial (later called a "Viewpoint") began to appear on the back page. Until his death in 1984, Elder Mark E. Petersen of the Council of the Twelve wrote virtually all the editorials. Today, the Viewpoints are written by selected members of the Deseret News management team and are subject to approval by the church's Correlation Department.
Over the years, four other men served briefly as editors: John R. Talmage, Conrad B. Harrison, Merwin G. Fairbanks and Jack E. Jarrard.
In 1968, J Malan Heslop took the helm. Formerly chief photographer at the Deseret News, Heslop enhanced the visual appeal of the Church News. On May 11 of that year, the cover photo, featuring a portion of the BYU campus, was in color. Since then, every Church News cover has been in color.
Heslop began regularly to send staff writers to give in-person coverage to church events worldwide, a practice that continues today. Also, more correspondents were recruited to meet the demands of covering a worldwide church.
Heslop became Deseret News managing editor in 1976 and was succeeded as Church News editor by Dell Van Orden, a veteran journalist who had been serving as assistant Church News editor for eight years.
Under Van Orden, use of color in the Church News has increased. Today eight pages, including the cover, center spread and back page are in full color.
The Church News is as popular as ever, with a total circulation of 225,124 as of the end of April. Of those, 164,347 copies are sent separately from the Deseret News to subscribers worldwide.