By Elise Christenson
Before Provo had a railroad or a courthouse and 23 years before Utah became a state, the city had a daily newspaper.
The Provo Daily Times, founded in 1873 by Robert G. Sleater, 33, was described by Sleater as “the official paper of Utah County,”
In a column in the premiere issue dated Aug. 1, 1873, Sleater outlined the paper”s ambitions and strengths. Among them:
“A paper for the people”
“Independent – not neutral”
“The very latest telegraphic news”
“Mining and general correspondence”
“Carefully prepared editorials”
“Interesting and readable locals”
Sleater concluded with the promise that he would “endeavor to make our paper second to none in the territory.”
In the issues to follow, the Times was voracious in its reporting of Provo and territory news, it aggressively competed with The Salt Lake Tribune – calling it “the snappish, barking cowardly sheet” in the June 2, 1874 edition – and aggressively reporting on the local government.
With fire seemingly smoldering in his belly, Sleater and The Daily Times exposed corruption in the police department, persuaded the city to clean the streets and rallied for having the Utah women”s suffrage law repealed.
In its expansive coverage of local events, Sleater”s Times lived up to its 1873 claims as being “devoted to the interests of Utah County and the territory generally.”
One hundred and twenty nine years later, journalism, as a business, has changed.
Nowadays, daily papers are rarely independently owned and operated. The Times” modern-day counterpart, The Daily Herald, is owned by Pulitzer Inc., a national publishing company, based in St. Louis, that owns 14 daily newspapers and 37 weekly publications.
Although today”s press contrasts with Sleater”s days when he acted independently as a reporter, editor and publisher, similarities between the publications remain.
The Herald, which services Utah County, considers itself to be a community paper. With reports on community meetings as well as local editorials and columns, current managers hold to the same ideals that Sleater outlined.
However, despite similarities in purpose, a comparison of the two newspapers shows the Herald lacks the spirit and gumption that the Times possessed. Far from Sleater”s days of aggressive reporting and editorializing, a study of The Daily Herald by this reporter found the following:
– Some sections – an average of 11.44 percent of the newspaper – are comprised of advertisements and press releases disguised as news stories with a Herald byline
– The sports department receives a disproportionate amount of the Herald”s resources
– An average of 59.21 percent of the newspaper is comprised of articles from The Associated Press that are not local or written by a local staff
– Business, religion, and foods news are generally given superficial local coverage, with most of the articles provided by The Associated Press
– The majority of hard news stories are generated from council meetings without in-depth or investigative coverage
– Investigative reporting is not encouraged and with only eight full-time city (“A” section) reporters, enterprised, in-depth pieces are rare
-Caught between wanting to be a community paper as well as a metropolitan news source, the Herald has not identified its audiences
The result is that The Daily Herald, like its associates in the Pulitzer group, has become a generic newspaper. Without enterprising local news stories and editorials, the Herald is formulaic and generally indistinguishable from other minor mass media. While it makes efforts to reach out to the community with its available resources, a small staff and small news hole make it difficult to distinguish itself from other Pulitzer papers such as The (California) Sentinel, The (Illinois) Daily Chronicle and The (Arizona) Daily Sun.
While touting itself as a community newspaper, The Daily Herald is produced to appeal to the masses. It neglects, however, a highly educated populace that is looking, but seldom finds, in-depth reporting. By stretching itself in too many directions, it is unable to excel in any single one.
THE MILQUETOAST TEST
Middle-aged, balding and unassuming, Casper Milquetoast, a comic-strip character created in 1924 by Harold Webster, was a timid and retiring man. His name came from the combination of the foods “milk” and “toast,” chosen because they are considered to be foods with weak and generic connotations.
In a 1988 speech to Brigham Young University students, Ogden Standard-Examiner reporter Don Baker, likened Utah journalists unto the gutless cartoon character. Labeling the Utah press as a “Milquetoast media,” Baker charged that journalists were failing their readers by writing easy stories fed to them by city officials and other groups with outside interests. He said Utah journalists shied away from enterprising articles with investigative or in-depth coverage of events.
To gauge Baker”s claims, three issues of The Daily Herald – Sunday, May 19, Tuesday, May 21, and Thursday, May 23 – were analyzed according to a “Milquetoast test.” The test, devised by Alf Pratte, a professor of journalism at Brigham Young University and freelance reporter, seeks to establish standards and set ideals by classifying articles based on ten categories, ranging from level one – a story that is advertising based – to a level ten – an original, in-depth muckraking work of significant importance. The test is “an ideal to help consumers recognize the differences and quality in the ”news” they purchase,” Pratte said.
Each article was given a ranking according to the following standards:
Level One: Advertising based – advertising-related “news”
Ex: story announcing a new class to be offered, which gives the cost (obituaries and marriage announcements count as one cumulative level one article.)
Level Two: Public relations oriented – originated by an outside interest, not written by Herald staff
Ex: story announcing the appointment of a new director of a company
Level Three: Syndicated – columns purchased that were not written by Herald staff
Ex: Dear Abby, horoscope, Dave Barry, national scoreboard
Level Four: Soft News – untimely news stories that are human-interest based
Ex: All Associated Press soft news stories, movie review, sports game, feature on community member, local scoreboard
Level Five: Wire service copy or general news written by a full-time staff
Ex: All Associated Press hard news stories, city council stories (weather counted as one level 5 article)
Level Six: Interpretation – gives analysis or background, goes beyond simple reporting of level five
Ex: How drought is affecting Utah citizens, history of financial distress at Geneva Steel and what they”ve done to remedy the situation
Level Seven: Enterprise reporting – delves in-depth into public affairs
Ex: City paying large sums of money to employees that are dismissed from government jobs
Level Eight: Investigative reporting – reporter depends on someone else”s work to investigate secret corruption of significant importance
Ex: Watergate tip, Pentagon papers
Level Nine: Precision reporting – uses the techniques of a social scientist
Ex: Uses census data to show trends in population
Level Ten: Original in-depth muckraking – initiates investigative work into secret corruption of significant importance
Ex: Ida Tarbell”s 1904 5-year investigation into Standard Oil Co.
According to the Milquetoast test gauge used by this writer, it seems, 14 years after his admonition to the Utah press, Baker was right. The Daily Herald had an average of 98.43 percent of its stories as a level five or below. Herald stories averaged 33.63 percent as level fives and 45.00 percent as level fours. Stories that were not written by the local staff and generated by outside sources averaged 11.44 percent. There were no stories above a level six in the limited sample of three issues.
GENERATED BY OUTSIDE INTERESTS: LEVELS ONE AND TWO
Written in newspaper”s distinctive inverted pyramid style, set in columns and given a headline, a May 19 article titled, “Red Cliffs Lodge – Moab”s Adventure Headquarters,” appears to be a news article.
But it is not.
Upon closer examination readers may find the small print, written above the headline, that reads, “product of the advertising department.” This type of article, also known as an “advertorial,” is an advertisement disguised to read like a newspaper article.
However, not all stories that are advertising or public relations oriented have disclaimers such as the example above to let the reader know the story is not actually news, but an advertisement.
The business section, for example, has sections titled “Business Trends” and “Business Briefing.” According to one editor, most of these stories are press releases and some of them, such as “Tumbling facility switches locations” and “Brighton launches new Web site,” walk the line between advertisements and public relations. These briefs provide listings of services and specials offered by the companies as well as the phone number and address to receive further information.
This type of article is not limited to the business section. In the travel section, a brief titled “Hostel territory” advertises a Youth Hostel directory for $3 and “Tough Love” advertises three week-long “Quit Smoking Carnival Cruises,” with prices beginning at $612 per person.
Similar to these types of articles, level two stories have been written by public relations workers and submitted to the Herald. These stories, which are typically announcing something of public interest, are given a byline that reads “The Daily Herald.” The problem with these stories are that they have not been written by reporters and the source that provided the press release dictates the theme, emphasis, tone and subjectivity of the article.
One section, “Our Towns,” is comprised almost completely of level two stories. Instead of bylines that are labeled as “The Daily Herald,” as level two stories are called in other sections, the bylines read “Special to Our Towns.” In some instances such as “Nephi Library”s storytime switching to Thursdays for June,” the author, who is not a journalist, is given a byline and the title of a correspondent.
These sections are included as a service to community members that want to see their neighbors in the press, said Beth Palmer, news editor.
“It”s somewhat like a ward newsletter. These are largely non-edited press releases, but people like to see their grandpa or their uncle there,” Palmer said. “Could we do better? Definitely.”
As an institution that is constitutionally protected, some argue that the Herald and other papers that rely on public relations stories violate industry standard. Attaching a Herald byline to press releases falsely implies that the articles were initiated and written by Herald staff.
This does not seem to be a new practice. In the Feb. 13, 1874 edition of the Times, Sleater wrote of The Salt Lake Tribune, “They are adept at stealing articles and forging them for their readers as their own composition. They have hardly a new idea or thought.”
DISPROPORTIONATE RESOURCES: LEVEL FOUR
While Kirk Parkinson, Herald publisher, would not disclose the percentage of the budget dedicated to the sports department, he said, “We, perhaps, put a disproportionate amount of resources into that department.”
This “disproportionate” rationing of funds is seen when sports reporters are sent to basketball and football games in neighboring states, while the news section relies on The Associated Press for coverage of news events that happen in Salt Lake City.
Parkinson justified this decision by citing that he”s giving Herald readers what they want.
“Newspapers are a business, just like anything else,” he said. “We place a fairly large emphasis on sports, particularly because of BYU. This is generally an area that generates a lot of interest from the community.”
However, Thomas Patterson, the author of a Harvard study on the changes in news coverage during the 1980s and 1990s, said a rise in soft news “may now be hastening the decline in news audiences.”
In the study, Patterson said a gradual shift to emphasis on soft news and a reliance on syndicated material is detrimental to a newspaper in terms of profits and circulation.
“Over the long run, soft news is shrinking the numbers of viewers and readers, especially because those who prefer hard news are much heavier consumers of news,” he said.
RELIANCE ON THE ASSOCIATED PRESS AND SYNDICATES: LEVELS THREE THROUGH FIVE
Even if it had been made up, the following anecdote could not have been made to fit the stereotypes more perfectly.
On May 6, 2002, the day The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints began open houses for the Nauvoo temple, The Deseret News, The Salt Lake Tribune, The Universe and The Daily Herald all ran front-page stories to commemorate the event.
The Deseret News article had the glowing and congratulatory tone – and content – of a church press release, living up to its reputation of being a podium the Latter-day Saint church – its owner.
The Salt Lake Tribune, sterotyped as “anti-Mormon,” ran a story that had little to do with the temple or faith, instead focusing on the effect of the temple on real estate values.
The Universe article, labeled by some students at Brigham Young University as the “Uni-farce,” contained a major factual error, misidentifying the date the open houses were to begin.
The Daily Herald ran an AP story.
The stereotype of Herald reporters relying on wire services to cover stories they could have covered themselves, seems to hold true. According to the issues examined in the Milquetoast test, only 29.15 percent of the articles in the newspaper were written by Herald reporters. Of the remaining 70.65 percent of the articles, 3.98 percent were advertisements in article format, 7.46 percent were press releases and 59.21 percent were provided by The Associated Press.
While the average percentage of Associated Press stories is slightly higher than The Deseret News, 57.68 percent, and The Salt Lake Tribune, 54.72 percent, it is significantly lower than Utah”s other dailies. The (St. George) Spectrum, with 77.38 percent of its stories from wire services, had the highest average percentage of Associated Press stories, during the sampled period.
The result is that the increasing reliance on wire services by Utah press contributes to the increasing standardization of Utah newspapers.
Sections such as business, religion and foods typically have one local article, with the rest filled with Associated Press stories.
While The Deseret News and The Salt Lake Tribune, have an entire section devoted to business news, the Herald only reserves one page, which occasionally has a local business story.
“Business is very underrepresented,” Palmer said. “It”s not a priority. Sometimes we”re even scraping the bottom of the AP barrel to come up with something.”
Additionally, in a state that is just under 70 percent Latter-day Saint, it is surprising that there is such skimpy coverage of local religion.
However, Eric Snider, features editor, sees things differently.
“We don”t run AP because we”re bad or because we”re lazy,” he said. “Typically, the AP stories are the most useful and of the most interest – they”re written by professionals. Our readers don”t care where the story came from. AP can do a lot better, so we provide it as a service to our readers.”
Parkinson said the reliance on Associated Press stories is a matter of economics. The Herald, he said, does not have the resources to generate the stories themselves.
“Sure, certain areas are not as local as I”d like, but we can”t generate articles as cheaply (as using the wire service)” Parkinson said. “I would love to see our staff localize weather, but it would be expensive. If we had correspondents in every city calling in to localize the weather, it would be great weather, but it would also be expensive weather.”
IN-DEPTH NEWS: LEVELS SIX AND ABOVE
According to Parkinson, newspapers are fundamentally the same – they all run the same syndicates and many of the same Associated Press stories. The best way the Herald can distinguish itself, he said, is by covering local news.
“Newspapers of this size hang their hat on local news,” he said. “The only thing we can do that is unique to us is to cover local news. The better we cover this county, the better of a paper we are – we do that through local news and local advertising.”
It should be disturbing, then, that less than 2 percent of Herald articles rise above a level six. According to Parkinson, this is due to a combination of a lack of resources and the fact that stories above a Level Six have not previously been a focus of newsroom leadership.
The City desk, which writes the news contained in the “A” section, employs eight full-time employees and one part-time employee. Each reporter covers one of the following beats: Provo, Orem, North County, South County; business / medicine, county / legislature (this reporter is also the opinion editor), education and special events.
With such an expansive beat to cover, it is difficult to find time to do an in-depth piece, said Jesse Coleman, North County reporter.
“Investigative pieces are not encouraged,” he said. “But they”re not outright discouraged either.”
Coleman writes an average of two stories each day.
“If I get my two stories in, I could work on another story if I wanted to,” he said.
Reporters are expected to generate a certain amount of stories to fill the pages each day, leading to formulaic reporting, Palmer said.
This is seen in the heavy coverage of city council meetings, which typically occur on Tuesdays. On Monday and Tuesday, the A-section is filled with preview articles about what will be discussed at the meetings, on Wednesday, there are reports of what was decided at the meetings and on Thursday and Friday there is an extended coverage of reactions to what happened at the meetings.
“It”s getting to be almost silly,” Palmer said. “Sometimes an article we get on Tuesday will be almost the same as an article we ran on Monday, but with a few dates that have been changed.”
Pat Ridgell, a sports reporter, has won national awards for his enterprise reporting and sports column reporting while working at other newspapers. He said that he does not typically write those types of stories for the Herald.
“I enjoy writing columns and enterprise reporting,” he said. “(I do it) rarely in Provo, but frequently for other papers for which I”ve worked.”
Palmer attributes this to the fact that the reporters do not have enough time to go into greater depth.
“A five is the easiest news,” she said. “There is the time factor.”
Also significant to note is that the Herald does not have real competition. The Deseret News, weekday circulation of 65,912, and The Salt Lake Tribune, weekday circulation of 134,542, respectively have double and quadruple the circulation of the Herald, weekday circulation of 30,960. Of Utah”s five other dailies, The Deseret News is the only paper that covers Utah County.
There is not a sense of competition, Snider said.
“I really don”t feel a rivalry,” he said. “The reviewers from the other papers are my colleagues; not my competition. We all sit together at the movies. We all help each other out.”
This lack of formidable competition leads to complacency, Palmer said.
“There is this mentality where the reporters seem to be stuck in a rut. They get good and so they stay there,” she said.
Coleman agreed. In the abscence of a push to “scoop” other papers, there is not a motivating force to do investigative stories. Since there is not a threat of someone beating Herald reporters to a story, no one goes looking for it.
“There”s no fire in the newsroom,” he said. “There”s little smolderings here and there, but there”s no real burning. The reporters are good writers and good people, but they sit at their desks just chugging along.”
However, some contend that there are not big stories that need to be investigated in Utah Valley. Others contend that even if there are, Utah readers are not concerned with hearing about them.
“This is a society where there”s not a lot of crime. There”s not a lot of the types of things that newspapers hang their hats on. Crimes that are exciting and interesting – that sell papers – are not a part of our society,” Parkinson said.
Orem City Mayor Jerry Washburn said he believes the Herald serves the needs of his community. He commended the paper for not looking for controversy.
“They used to look for more of the sensational and write things that were controversial, but I”ve sensed an effort, in the last few years, to not go looking for controversy,” he said. “Most of the articles that are written now relate to public policy. They are things we generate in city council and are spun off by the reporter. By and large I appreciate their approach.”
THE HERALD IN TRANSITION
Coleman described the Herald”s current management as “a chicken with its head cut off.”
In March, Robb Hicken resigned as city editor. In May, Mitch Wilkinson resigned as assistant managing editor and in June, Mike Fitzgerald resigned as managing editor. Although the positions have been filled, the managing editor and the assistant managing editor have not started yet.
“The structure is weak, but the reporting staff is strong,” said Marc Haddock, city editor.
Haddock, former editor of the weekly Utah County paper, New Utah, replaced Hicken in April. Haddock, who had never worked for a daily paper, said he received little training.
“We are basically without a head right now,” he said. “Every day is interesting because I have to make fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants decisions. But the good thing is that there”s no one to get mad at me.”
With no clear management presently at the Herald, the paper”s direction seems hazy. When asked about the Herald”s target audience, Parkinson said, “There is no particular target audience. Newspapers are a mass medium and we”ll take anyone we can get.”
With sections such as “Our Towns,” local sports, foods, travel and outdoors columns, and coverage of county meetings it would seem that the Herald functions as a community paper.
However, although the Herald runs local columns, the articles that dominate the religion, foods, outdoors, travel and business sections are national Associated Press stories.
Additionally, the Herald is seemingly inconsistent in its coverage of state events. When the state legislature is in session, some of it is covered by the Herald, while some of it is covered by The Associated Press.
Similarly, the Herald sent a reporter 43 miles south of Provo to cover the prosecution of convicted bigamist Tom Green, but ran an Associated Press story about the recent kidnapping of 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart, which occurred 48 miles north of Provo.
“Newspapers have to make a choice on content. I”m not going to say that we hit the target every time,” Parkinson said.
Coleman said the Herald is “schizophrenic” in its coverage of events.
“I haven”t been given an idea of who the audience is,” he said. “I don”t think the Herald knows who its audience is.”
For the area the Herald services, it is surprising that the circulation is relatively low. Compared to national markets, Utah County is among the most highly educated, Parkinson said. However, in a county of 368,536 residents, the Herald has a subscription of 30,960 on weekdays and 32,578 for the Sunday edition.
In contrast, the Ogden Standard-Examiner, which primarily services Weber County, population 196,533, has a subscription of 63,000 on weekdays and 68,212 for the Sunday edition.
“We are trying to increase our reach,” Haddock said. “We should double our circulation.”
To do that, Haddock said he wants the Herald to be more community-minded.
“I want to create a product that resonates with the community. I want people to read these stories and to feel like (the Herald) is theirs,” he said.
Haddock said, ideally, he would like to see the majority of news articles at levels six and seven.
“We are trying to get beyond simply reporting events by putting an emphasis on issues above actions,” Haddock said. “I want to see an emphasis on business, relevant religion and a lifestyles section that sparkles.”
However, the Herald is at a standstill until the new managing editor, Randy Wright, begins on July 1. Wright, from Arizona, was a former editor at New Utah.
“I”ve been told not to change anything until then,” Haddock said.
So until July 1, it is business as usual at the Herald.
“Right now we”re kind of floating freely, but we”ve heard that it”s all going to change” Palmer said. “That”s what everyone”s hoping.”
One hundred and twenty nine years later, the changes being made at the Herald – being more community minded and striving for in-depth reporting of Utah County – seem to mirror the goals Sleater originally outlined for The Provo Daily Times. “We (will publish) a reliable newspaper, worthy of the attention of an enlightened people,” he wrote on Aug. 1, 1873. “It is a beginning for the citizens of Utah County and its surroundings, in having a newspaper that they may call their own. ”
Almost as an afterthought, Sleater added, “There”s naught so difficult as a beginning.”
Haddock, and the rest of the Herald staff, would likely agree.
