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SALT LAKE CITY — Paul Huntsman, who bought the Salt Lake Tribune in 2016 and converted it into a nonprofit three years later, is resigning as chairman of the newspaper's board of directors and stepping away from its operations.
Huntsman made the announcement Friday in an open letter on the Tribune's website.
As chairman of the board, he also headed the paper's six-person editorial board, which selects topics and positions for the Sunday editorials.
"This has taken a toll on me. I have never taken a penny of compensation, nor expected to receive any, from the Tribune. This effort has taken me away from many other professional responsibilities related to managing the growing investments at our family office," wrote Huntsman, son of the late industrialist and philanthropist Jon M. Huntsman Sr.
Huntsman bought the Tribune from New York-based Alden Global Capital in 2016. Three years later, he shepherded its unprecedented conversion from a legacy newspaper to a public donation-supported nonprofit.
While their newsrooms were independent of each other, the Tribune and the Deseret News shared production, delivery and advertising efforts under a decades-long joint operating agreement that wasn't renewed at the end of 2020. Huntsman wrote that while the two have always been "competitors, alternative voices, and, in many ways, represented separate demographics," near-term success was predicated on the other surviving.
"I have not formally acknowledged how amenable and constructive the Deseret News was as a partner alongside the Tribune. I want to publicly thank Jeff Simpson (now head of Deseret Management Corp.), who fought hard to ensure both newspapers found a soft landing when the joint operating agreement expired Dec. 31, 2020," Huntsman wrote.
Said Simpson, "We both prioritized making Utah, and specifically Salt Lake City, one of the most vibrant journalism markets in the country and that allowed us to rise above the outcomes of so many other local news markets."
Huntsman said the results of becoming a nonprofit exceeded his financial expectations, and the transition put the Tribune on a pathway to sustainability.
"While this new model of journalism has repaired the Tribune's balance sheet, it does not guarantee long-term success. Relevance, genuine independence, accountability and innovation are critical for the community to put its full trust and value behind this institution," he wrote.
Huntsman wrote that he does not regret the journey of the past eight years, calling it an "exhausting, thrilling, exasperating, rocky and sometimes fulfilling ride. The chance of a lifetime. But among the most important things in life are knowing oneself and one's place in life's cycles."
The experience, he wrote, whetted his appetite for watchdog journalism. "That love affair remains strong, and I will reengage."
