The oldest business in Utah is having a birthday.
Mormon pioneers had inhabited the Salt Lake Valley for only three years when the first issue of the Deseret News came off a rickety $61 Ramage handpress 145 years ago today.Beneath a headline proclaiming a "Truth and Liberty" motto, the first issue included poetry, a report out of the U.S. Senate, an update on the devastating San Francisco fire of 1849, letters to the editor, messages from pioneers to other settlers and a detailed prospectus for the fledgling paper.
In those days, there was no reliable mail system and no telegraph, let alone satellite information transmissions, cellular phones, computers or modems. Information was gathered mostly by word-of-mouth in what was then called the territory of Deseret. The region included all of what is now Utah and Nevada and parts of Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Oregon and a strip of California that reached to the San Bernardino area.
In recent years, the Deseret News has weathered the same problems that have plagued newspapers nationwide - a rocky national economy, lackluster readership, skyrocketing newsprint costs and inconsistent advertising revenue. Under the duress of these factors, many papers have closed or merged to cut costs.
"In a time when many newspapers are struggling, we've survived," said Publisher Wm. James Mortimer. "We're still going very strong as a viable, modern, up-to-date newspaper that serves its readers very well. I see a bright future for the Deseret News."
That bright future includes a new building for which construction on the corner of 100 South and Regent Street will begin later this year. In preparation for the new building, the paper's editorial operations are relocating across Regent Street for the next two years. After stopping for a few moments to sample a slice of birthday cake, staffers will resume the process of getting out the day's news, packing boxes and preparing for the relocation, which is expected to be completed by Monday, June 26.
When a longtime construction business, the Elias Morris Co., folded in the early 1960s, the Deseret News became Utah's oldest operating business. It is the second-oldest newspaper west of the Mississippi, eight months younger than the New Mexican, of Santa Fe, N.M.
"Yes, we're having a birthday, but I don't think we've grown old," Mortimer said. "We're keeping up with the most modern technology in our photo and art departments. Our technology is state-of-the-art, and we offer our readers an online (Crossroads) service.
"We're doing as well as any newspaper in the country," he said.
Brigham Young first printed the eight-page tabloid-style paper to keep the Mormon colonists in touch with the world they had abandoned. Willard Richards, a former New England physician, was the paper's first editor and the author of many early editorials that urged settlers to improve manufacturing and agricultural efforts.
The prospectus printed in the paper's first issue proposed to publish a "small weekly sheet . . . designed originally to record the passing events of our State and in connextion (sic), refer to the arts and sciences, embracing general education, medicine, law, divinity, domestic and political economy, that may fall under our observation, which may tend to promote the best interest."
Editors also pledged to hold themselves up to the "highest court of truth."
"When we speak, we shall speak freely, without regard to men or party, and when, like other men, we err, let him who has his eyes open, correct us in meekness, and he shall receive his disciple's award."
With a new Deseret News headquarters under design and construction, Mortimer looks toward a prosperous future for the state and the newspaper. Growth-related factors such as transportation, planning, real estate and economic development will continue their position as the top issues of each day's newspaper, he said.
An announcement from Budapest, Hungary, Friday by the International Olympic Committee may shape a sizable chunk of coverage for the next few years, said Managing Editor Don Woodward.
If Salt Lake City wins the bid, the paper will restructure its reporting staff and delegate more people to cover Utah's preparation for the event. "We'll need to stay on top of how they're going to finance everything and the bigger details, but we'll also need to tell people how to watch the Games," Woodward said. "Most people know what's going on in the bigger events but may not know about the biathlon, for example. We'll need to educate people."
In addition to providing readers with a good newspaper, Mortimer said, the Deseret News always has been interested in supporting the community. "They call it public journalism now, but we've been doing it for many years," he said.
Employees serve on various boards of directors in the community, are members of the local chamber of commerce and are involved in arts efforts. The paper also has long-running sponsorship of Sterling Scholar Awards, the Salute to Youth concert series, Newspapers in Education program and the Deseret News Marathon/10K, he said.
"We have a real commitment to the betterment of the state we serve."