Editor’s note: This city profile is part of a larger project in which Daily Universe reporters traveled across Utah and Wyoming to investigate the state of local newspapers.
City: Price
Population: 8,437
Newspaper: ETV News
Circulation: Print only
History: Price is the county seat and largest town in Carbon County. The area was settled in 1879 and is reportedly named for Bishop William Price, who was one of the first people to explore the area. The city is very close to both Nine Mile Canyon and the Manti La Sal National Forest. Price is home to Utah State University Eastern, which enrolls 2,700 students.
Economy: The median household income in Price is $47,140, and the local economy employs 3,525 people. Major industries include in mining, oil, quarrying, gas extraction and utilities. A little more than 19% of the Price population lives below the poverty line, compared to 14% of Americans as a whole.
Newspaper: Price has had many newspapers over the years, the most long lasting being the Sun Advocate. The Sun Advocate began in 1891 as the Eastern Utah Telegraph. On October 5, 2018, Emery Telecom purchased the Sun Advocate, and another newspaper called the Emery County Progress. The two papers were then combined with ETV News, a free-circulation paper published weekly. According to Price City Council member Layne Miller, the paper is important as it provides Price with “a home for our public notices and our residents can still browse the obituaries to learn who has passed away.”
An informal survey of readers by BYU reporting students about their newspaper showed the following:
Pros
- Does a good job covering crime, education, city and county government
- Covers community news well
- Good local sports coverage
- Free, can sign up for a subscription on the website
- Weekly paper
- Has an online presence (website, Facebook etc.)
Cons
- May not cover local issues well enough
- Because the paper is free, it may have too much advertisingand not enough news coverage
