Deseret News

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DNews to Become “Mormon Niche Publication”?

Glen Warchol’s blog: Salt Lake Crawler
Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Getting the 'tone' at the DNews

Update . . .

Deseret News government reporters pulled their bylines today in protest of management changes made as the paper transforms itself into a Mormon niche publication.

Assistant managing editor for news Chuck Gates and business editor Julianne Basinger have been demoted. Gates is now a "special writer." Basinger has been sent to the copy desk. State government editor Josh Loftin says, "In both cases, you can't call it anything but a demotion."

Why? In the words of veteran DNews reporter James Thalman:

We weren't going Mo' enough, fast enough.

Gates and Bassinger reportedly often fought against stories being killed or slanted because they "were not acceptable to the LDS reader." The change is not coming from the Church Office Building, Loften says:

This is a decision made ultimately by Joe Cannon. It's being done because he believes sincerely the way to save the newspaper is to turn it into a publication for a niche LDS reader. The News needs to still educate them, [Cannon says] but not offend their sensibilities or put the LDS chuch in a negative light.

Tad Walch, a Utah County reporter, will replace Gates, Loftin says, because Walch "gets the tone" that Cannon, a former GOP state party chair and lobbyist, has been pushing since he took over at the DNews. "They can never tell us what the 'tone' is," Loftin says. "They say, 'You'll know it when you get it.' "

Loften's government staff, including political editor Bob Bernick, pulled their bylines from their stories — the only real control a reporter has over his or her work. The bylines were replaced with "By Deseret News staff."