Webb: The Deseret News is about to take an historic step, one that has been desired, discussed and fought for over many decades. As of Monday, it becomes a morning-delivered paper all across the state.
The goal of going morning seems pretty simple: survive and thrive. Afternoon papers in competitive metro-area markets just don't make it. Going morning should ensure the News' survival. But I don't expect the move will lead to big circulation gains, at least not quickly.
A longtime source of consternation to News editors and leaders of the LDS Church, its owner, has been the Salt Lake Tribune's significant lead in readership. Some or much of that disparity could be attributed to the morning delivery cycle enjoyed by the Tribune. But now the News is on equal footing and has to deliver. No more excuses about being on the wrong publication cycle.
Over the next year or two, we will learn if the News' circulation challenge was its publication cycle or if its problem is something else — something more structural and fundamental.
A big question is whether the News, whose editorial voice more nearly reflects the political ideology of most Utahns, can capitalize on its more family-friendly, moderately conservative image. Why do Utahns, famous for supporting conservative politicians and issues, favor a liberal newspaper with weird high school journalism features like Culture Vulture and Zionide by 2-1 margins?
Consider also that the Tribune's owner, who lives in Denver, wants to use his newspaper to shake up Utah politics and get more Democrats elected. (What he really stated was a goal to create more political diversity in Utah. But that means elect more Democrats.) So why are Utah Republicans voting with their dollars to support his paper?
Maybe conservatives don't read newspapers.
In this matter, the big elephant sitting quietly in the corner is the LDS Church ownership of the News. Can and does the News cover the church fairly and can it ever dramatically boost circulation as a church-owned entity? KSL TV/radio, with the same owner, manage to lead their industries. Can the News do the same?
All papers have owners. And good papers cover their owners and report the bad along with the good. But most papers do not proactively develop harsh, negatively toned investigative stories about their owners. In other words, the Tribune isn't going to cover Dean Singleton and his media empire like they would the governor or some other business tycoon.
Similarly, the Deseret Morning News is going to cover the church fairly and fully. But you won't find an investigative reporter assigned to dig up dirt on the church and report it in a negative fashion.
Both papers cover the church well. But there is clearly a difference in tone and style, with the Tribune being more aggressive and investigative, and inclined to put a much more negative spin on its stories. But no one is going to miss any church stories by reading the News.
People get used to reading a newspaper, and they just don't want to change, even if their paper sometimes makes them angry.
It's going to be very interesting to watch the head-to-head competition of two good newspapers.
Wilson: The greatest hurdle the News faces is that readers think the news they get is filtered by the ownership of the News, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Even LDS readers are taught early in their lives by both the American tradition of free speech and by their church that intelligence is a good thing. For them, faith can be based on prayer and pure belief. But the news — what's going on in the world, America, and at home — is supposed to be objective and unfiltered. Right or wrong, apparently Utahns believe the Trib prints unfiltered news more than the News. The News itself seems to recognize this problem.
My personal association with the editorial staff of the News as a columnist and my experience with the paper in public office and as director of a political institute has taught me the News is a very objective paper almost all of the time. The editors and reporters of the News work hard every day to bring information to the public that is as pure as possible. They reserve their opinions for the editorial pages.
The problem is not commission, it is omission. It is no secret that information that might put the ownership of the News in a bad light — that is, the LDS Church — is not as freely given as it might be in the Trib. It is not what is printed in the News that is the problem; it is what is not printed.
That is not unusual. I know of just as many examples where the Tribune, at least under the old ownership, filtered the news. There it was not to protect a religion, but to promote a variety of causes. The Trib has a remarkable history of pushing such things as consolidated government. The Trib did more than its share of biased journalism to make consolidated government appear favorable to the voter. Most papers do exactly that. So the News favoring its ownership occasionally is not news. All papers have their biases.
The problem is, many people, including many active Mormons, worry the church runs the state. So the perception of power — no matter how mythological that might be — coupled with the power of the press makes the News suspect to many potential readers.
This is a problem the professionals at the News have little control over. But if they truly control content as the ads said, it is time to do some unvarnished reporting on the LDS Church. Leaders of the LDS Church were rankled a couple of years ago when the Trib did a feature on the Mountain Meadow Massacre casting the church in a bad light right at the time President Gordon B. Hinckley generously dedicated a memorial to the massacre victims. If the News had done its own such story, it could have pre-empted the Trib, and the story would have likely been more favorable to the church. In politics, and this applies to the news business, one learns the hard lesson that bad news is best presented by you. If the outside press discovers it, the emphasis will be far worse than if you had released the information. In my view, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Deseret News need to learn that lesson if they expect the News to be a competitive morning paper.
Democrat Ted Wilson, former Salt Lake mayor, directs the Hinckley Institute of Politics at the University of Utah. E-mail: tednews@hotmail.com. Republican LaVarr Webb was policy deputy to Gov. Mike Leavitt and Deseret News managing editor. He now is a political consultant and lobbyist. E-mail: lavarrwebb@msn.com