Юта штатының «Salt Lake City Weekly» газетінің тарихы

Newspaper in Utah, United States

Salt Lake City Weekly (usually shortened to City Weekly) is a free alternative weekly tabloid paged newspaper published in Salt Lake City, Utah. It began as Private Eye. City Weekly is published and dated for every Thursday by Copperfield Publishing Inc. of which John Saltas is majority owner and president.

John Saltas founded what would become Salt Lake City Weekly in June 1984. He called his monthly publication Private Eye because it contained news and promotions for bars and dance clubs, which due to Utah State liquor laws were all private clubs. Saltas originally mailed the Private Eye as a newsletter to private club members. State law forbade private clubs from advertising at the time, so Saltas' newsletter was the only way for clubs to provide promotional information. In 1988 Private Eye became a bi weekly newspaper although it was available mostly in clubs. Distribution of the paper broadened as new liquor rule interpretations at the Utah Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (DABC) allowed mainstream media to carry club advertisements as long as they weren't "soliciting" members. Private Eye thus ended its mailed period and was available for free in public distribution outlets for the first time. In 1989, Private Eye was admitted to the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies (AAN), the organization's 40th member.

In its origin as a publication promoting Salt Lake City area nightlife during a time when state alcohol regulations were more strict, City Weekly developed a reputation for its tendency to challenge established viewpoints—a reputation which now extends to the paper's coverage of local politics. Apart from covering scandals about former Democratic Salt Lake City Mayor Deedee Corradini, the paper controversially editorialized against her and her associates. The paper often listed her actions as "misses" in the "Hits & Misses" column on the opinion page. City Weekly attacks on district attorney Neal Gunnarson so upset him that he stole hundreds of copies of the paper from the racks in 1997. Technically, this is theft because only the first copy of each publication is free; additional copies are one dollar each. An article appearing in the issue posited that Gunnarson was being too soft on Mayor Corradini, claiming that his weak prosecution didn't "pass the smell test." During the 1999 mayoral elections, the scandal ridden Corradini declined to seek re election. City Weekly endorsed Rocky Anderson in a crowded primary. Anderson had been retained by the paper as an attorney on occasion. Facing Stuart Reid, a member of Corradini's administration, Anderson won, but the paper remained neutral during his 2003 re election. However, during Anderson's second term, he was visiting another city and crossed a police picket line in order to attend a scheduled meeting. He later remarked to a reporter that the line was not a picket line, but a demonstration, so there was no harm in crossing. This did not sit well with John Saltas, who viewed it as a repudiation of a useful labor negotiating tactic, and since that time Saltas has made several critical comments toward the Mayor in his columns. In 2004, City Weekly published a series of articles criticizing embattled Salt Lake County mayor Nancy Workman. Workman was acquitted of criminal charges for misuse of County funds, but was forced out as a candidate by vote of the Salt Lake County Republican Party Central Committee. The Central Committee then proceeded to nominate and accept by acclamation candidate and developer Ellis Ivory. In the ensuing election Ivory was defeated by Democrat Peter Corroon.

City Weekly comments extensively on local media through a "media beat" column and letters from the editor. In 2006 the major newspapers (through their joint publishing arm, MediaOne, formerly the Newspaper Agency Corporation) launched In Utah This Week, a free weekly events oriented newspaper. Throughout the alternative newspaper industry, such publications produced by a city daily are referred to as Fake Alts, or FauxAlts. In Utah This Week ceased publication a few years later. Saltas has mocked the Tribune's byline "Utah's Independent Voice" by calling the paper "Utah's co dependent voice." The paper, he points out, is published with the same MediaOne facilities as the two paper's joint operating agreement. Thus City Weekly casts the paper as being "less independent than it pretends to be." The 2002 Tribune acquisition by Dean Singleton, owner of the nation's 7th largest newspaper chain, prompted an exposé. City Weekly asserted that increased cooperation and expansion of the two daily papers under Singleton's Tribune leadership hurt surrounding papers' viability. The Tribune has hired two former reporters of the City Weekly, while City Weekly has hired several former Tribune reporters over the same time span, with moves in both directions affirming the legitimacy of news reporting in City Weekly. After emerging from bankruptcy in 2010, MediaNews Group lost control of the Tribune to a hedge fund, Alden Global Capital. As of May 2016, sale of The Tribune to a local businessman is being negotiated.

City Weekly tends to be geared toward a younger, more urban, and more liberal audience than the area's other papers. Its features include its reviews of art films (Scott Renshaw), restaurants (Ted Scheffler), local music groups, scheduled art shows and events, and television (Bill Frost). Founder Saltas writes a stream of thought column called "Private Eye." Katharine Biele writes an opinion briefs feature called "Hits & Misses". Until 2014 the paper had a satire column called "Deep End" written by D. P. Sorensen who, among other things, jokingly claimed to have been Mitt Romney's missionary companion. It also carries syndicated columns "News Quirks" by Roland Sweet, and The Straight Dope, by Chicago based Cecil Adams, Free Will Astrology and comics such as Tom Tomorrow's This Modern World, and Keith Knight's K Chronicles. The paper has also expanded its online content in recent years, including featured blogs from Gavin Sheehan. City Weekly publishes a number of special issues each year, including the Best of Utah guide and the City Weekly Music Awards (formerly SLAMMys) issue (see also Music of Utah).