Deseret News
Deseret News is a news organization based in Salt Lake City, in the U.S. state of Utah. The newspaper was first published in 1850 and is owned by a company of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, better known as the Mormon church.
What you will find
The website covers news from Utah and the United States, with sections on politics, family, faith, sports and opinion. On gender, the editorial team publishes news reports and background articles, for example about legislation in U.S. states, sports and healthcare for minors.
Why it is on this list
Deseret News is an established newspaper with its own editorial team, but it writes from a moderately conservative and religious perspective. That background is relevant when assessing its coverage of family and gender. See also international developments and policies by country.
History
The first issue was published on June 15, 1850, as an eight-page weekly under the editorship of Willard Richards. It was Utah's first newspaper. The name refers to Deseret, as the pioneers called the area. Starting in 1867, a daily evening edition was published. In 1952, the newspaper reached an agreement with rival The Salt Lake Tribune to share printing and advertising sales. That collaboration ended on January 1, 2021. The daily print newspaper also ceased publication that year. Since then, the news has been published online daily, alongside a weekly local and a weekly national print edition, the Church News supplement and Deseret Magazine. Reporter Robert Mullins won a Pulitzer Prize for local reporting in 1962.
Owner and editorial stance
The church owns the newspaper through Deseret Management Corporation. Doug Wilks has been editor in chief since 2016, and Burke Olsen has been publisher since 2023. The newspaper does not automatically follow the Republican Party. In October 2016, the editorial board called on Donald Trump to withdraw as a candidate in an editorial. According to that article, the newspaper had not taken a position on presidential candidates for eighty years. In 2020, it opposed the Utah attorney general's support for a lawsuit concerning the election results.
How to assess this source
Distinguish between the news coverage, the opinion pages and Church News, which reports on church news. For legislation in Utah, the newspaper is a source close to the subject. In articles about family, faith and gender, the church's ownership is a relevant consideration. See also gender and religion. For more on sports, see gender and sports. How sensitive the subject is in American newsrooms is illustrated by the report about the sports columnist who resigned after a column about women's sports was pulled.