“I assumed our business was in worse shape than it was”

When Andy Larsen, a sports reporter and data columnist for The Salt Lake Tribune, delved into the paper’s finances, he was…pleasantly surprised! His findings became the Tribune’s first annual report, which Sarah wrote about this week. The Tribune was the first legacy paper in the U.S. to become a nonprofit.

“A firewall between business and editorial is essential for the integrity of the product, IMO,” Larsen told us. “On the other hand, that firewall can also be limiting when it comes to belief between the two groups — frankly, I think some of our own writers, including myself, had just assumed that our business was in worse shape than it was, just based on us operating in the newspaper biz in 2024. One way to get the information out to staff without breaking that firewall was just publishing everything to everyone.”

The Tribune anticipates that digital subscription revenue will exceed print revenue for the first time this year.

— Laura Hazard Owen

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