August 1849
- Deseret Press stationed in tiny one-room adobe building on South Temple and Main streets; its first job was to print necessary documents
1850
- Willard Richards establishes Deseret News as its first editor with three other workers
- On June 15, 220 copies of first weekly issue printed with little news to share due to isolated location
- Subscription for six months in advance priced at $2.50 with the paper accepting money, trade goods and “every good thing”
- Papers could be bought at the newspaper office or from a newsboy on the streets
- Advertisements — want ads and such — consist of woodcut illustrations
- Ellen Richards, Willard Richard’s daughter, works as first copy girl at Deseret News
- Deseret News pulls back and prints only every other week (if that) because of paper scarcity; longest absence of a printing was three months
- Deseret News appeals to its audience for rags to make into paper
- Deseret News moves to nearby three-story adobe structure, a site that later housed the Utah Hotel
1850–1899
- Salt Lake City is known as a “newspaper cemetery” as 100 periodicals emerge and die; the Deseret News survives
1851
- Circulation grows to nearly 700 copies
- Another hand-operated press added, enlarging the individual printing page
- First edition of the Deseret Almanac began printing on the Deseret Press
1853–1870s
- Deseret News workers rationed a half-pound of bread per day
1854
- Deseret News moves to the annex of the building with the Tithing Office
June 1854
- First editions of the homemade rag paper produced
1856
- Deseret News reaches a press run of 4,000
- Deseret News moves into the Council House on South Temple and Main streets
- Deseret News moves to Fillmore during Utah War
- Deseret News returns to Council House after five months
1860
- Brigham Young purchases a paper-making machine for Deseret News
- Rags for Deseret News accepted as tithing for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
- Extra one-page editions called the Pony Dispatch begin with arrival of Pony Express and Civil War
- First sports story published
1861
- George Goddard called on “rag mission” and collected over 100,000 pounds in 20 months
- Telegraph lines arrive in Salt Lake City and bring news from outside the Utah Territory
Oct. 22, 1861
- The first weekly Deseret News issue to feature telegraph dispatches
1862
- Deseret News moves back into annex of the Tithing Office
1864
- Pony Dispatch editions end but the extra daily editions continues
- A steam-powered cylinder printing press arrives and produces 1,800 newspapers per hour
October 1865
- Deseret News ramps up to semiweekly printing
1867
- Daily edition called the Deseret Evening News begins
- Deseret Press renamed Deseret News Power Press Printing Establishment
1868
- President Brigham Young calls women to be typesetters to help them learn the business
1870
- Typewriters brought into the office, but reporters prefer writing by hand
1871
- Deseret Press printed first Utah copies of the Book of Mormon
- Deseret News starts a bookstore that exchanged books for rags
1878
- Telephones installed at Deseret News
1883
- New paper mill built at mouth of Big Cottonwood Canyon and produces 5 tons of poor-quality paper per day out of logs and rags
1890
- Bullock printing press replaces steam-powered press with double-sided printing and produces 14,000 eight-page newspapers per hour
1892
- Articles “for women by women” started
October 1892
- Deseret News leased to the private firm Deseret News Publishing Co. from the Church to solve debt problems
April 1893
- Paper mill in Big Cottonwood Canyon burns, ending local paper-producing efforts
- First story accompanying illustration features the Salt Lake Temple at its dedication
1897
- Drawings and illustrations become a regular part of the newspaper
1898
- Weekly Deseret News edition stopped
April 23, 1898
- First sports page “The Sporting World” begins
September 1898
- Church takes back the lease from Deseret News Publishing Co.
1899
- Halftone photo engraving makes printing photographs possible at Deseret News
April 6, 1899
- First photograph in an advertisement
1900
- Photos with news columns become a staple
- Deseret News Power Press Printing Establishment renamed to Deseret News Book and Job Press
- Deseret News and Deseret News Book and Job Press separate
1903
- Deseret News moves back to the site of the now-burned-down Council House into a six-story building and eight-story annex with Union Pacific Railroad
1916
- First regular comic strip, “Just Kids”
1920
- Deseret News begins nightly “wireless news flashes” by Morse code over radio
- Deseret News’ bookstore merges with Deseret Sunday School Union bookstore and creates Deseret Book
June 1920
- Daily Deseret Evening News edition rebrands as Deseret News
1922
- Semiweekly Deseret News edition ends, leaving only the daily edition
April 21, 1922
- Deseret News acquires a radio license
May 6, 1922
- First broadcast of KZN radio aires atop the newspaper building
1924
- KZN radio program sold from Deseret News, becomes KFTP
1925
- KFTP became KSL
1926
- Teletypes (or teleprinters) added to help gather potential news copy from all over the world
- Deseret News moves to a building on Richards Street
1929
- Sports page grows from one page to three or four
April 1931
- The Church Section, a Saturday tabloid, starts
1932
- Deseret News Publishing Co. created again by the Church to run the Deseret News
1935
- Photos transmitted by wire to Deseret News
Aug. 16, 1935
- Biggest extra edition Deseret News ever sold was humorist Will Rogers and pilot Wiley Post crashing in Alaska, with 30,000 newspapers sold that morning
1940-1950
- Home delivery of newspaper begins
1940
- Trend begins of daily baby pictures in print
1941–1945
- Effects of WWII ration Deseret News’ paper for printing
1942
- The Church Section retitled to Weekly Church Edition
1943
- Weekly Church Edition retitled to Church News
1945–1947
- Deseret News sponsors collegiate Simplot Deserets basketball team in a predecessor to the National Basketball Association
1945
- Growing circulation pushes Deseret News to buy paper by the ton instead of the ream
1947
- Deseret News joins efforts of other newspapers to buy huge paper mill in Oregon
- 200 tons of newsprint used per month
1948
- Deseret News staff grows with young writers and editors
- Circulation expands to 100,000
- Sunday edition with the first-of-its-kind colored photographs begins
- Sunday edition won many honors and boosts circulation
- Deseret Press moves to a new building near Redwood Road
- Deseret News starts sponsoring free learn-to-ski program called Deseret News Ski School
1949
- 700 tons of newsprint used per month
1950
- Wendell J. Ashton writes 100-year history of Deseret News titled “Voice in the West”
1952
- Deseret News and Salt Lake Tribune create 30-year arrangement called a “joint operating agreement”
- The Newspaper Agency Corporation sprung from agreement and handles all printing, delivery and advertising for both papers
- Deseret News absorbed the Salt Lake Telegram
- Sunday edition ends and replaced by the joint operating agency’s Sunday Tribune
1959
- Deseret News starts sponsoring the annual Salute to Youth symphony concert
1960
- Coin-operated newspaper dispensers start to replace newsboys
1961
- Deseret News wins Pulitzer Prize for local reporting against deadline pressure, with articles about a murder in southeastern Utah
1962
- Deseret News and KSL-TV start sponsoring Sterling Scholar Awards
1966
- Deseret Management Corp. established with subsidiary Deseret News Publishing Co.
1968
- Deseret News moves to a building on Regent Street
1970
- The last of the newsboys disappear from the streets
- Deseret News starts sponsoring the Deseret News Marathon
1972
- Photo composition processing replaces linotype machines
- Daily baby photos end
- Deseret News Press renamed to Deseret Press
- Deseret Press funnelled under different management than Deseret News and the two split
1974
- Deseret News’ Church Almanac begins
1975
- 125th Anniversary Edition of the Deseret News published.
1980
- Deseret Press abandons all commercial aspects and renamed Salt Lake Printing Center for the Church
1981
- Church News retitled to LDS Church News: News of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
1982
- Joint operating agreement with Salt Lake Tribune renewed for another 30 years
1983
- Word processing computers replace typewriters
- Satellite transmission replaces teletypes in gathering news worldwide
- Images on a screen replace photographic prints
- Filmless digital cameras replace Speed Graphic cameras with flash attachments
- Deseret News starts sponsoring the Deseret News 10K
1995
- Deseret News starts to publish digitally on the dial-up service Crossroads Information Network — free for subscribers but a monthly fee for anyone else
- Deseret News moves to under a parking terrace across Regent Street as its building is demolished
- Plans for new Deseret News building begin
Sept. 27, 1995
- The Deseret News website (http://www.desnews.com) replaces dial-up service for online publication
May 28, 1997
- New Deseret News building is dedicated by First Presidency at 30 E. 100 South
1999
- 1,200 tons of newsprint used per month
- 50% or more of the staff at Deseret News are women
2000
- “Modern” press spews 50-page newspapers in color at 40,000 per hour
- “Through Our Eyes,” 150-year biography of Deseret News, published
2003
- Last ”extra” edition published reports on Elizabeth Smart’s rescue
June 9, 2003
- Deseret News renamed to Deseret Morning News
April 13, 2008
- Deseret Morning News renamed to Deseret News
2010
- Deseret News moves to Triad Center to integrate with KSL newsroom
December 2011
- Deseret News app launches on Apple Store and later Google Play Store
2013
- Print publication of Church Almanac ends
August 2019
- Domain of Deseret News website changed to Deseret.com
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Comments
December 2020
- Deseret News and Salt Lake Tribune end their joint operating agreement
January 2021
- Daily online and weekly print publishing replaces daily printed paper
- Weekly local edition, monthly Deseret Magazine and weekly national edition begins. Church News is distributed with weekly editions.
March 23, 2022
- Semiweekly local edition begins
2024
- 10 editions per year of Deseret Magazine published
