How the Nonprofit Salt Lake Tribune Became a ‘150-Year-Old Startup’

“The time was ripe. COVID had blown everything up,” Tribune’s executive vice president tells TheWrap The Salt Lake Tribune underwent a radical transformation just as the pandemic took hold last year, leaving its legacy print publication roots behind to become, as one newsroom executive described it, a “150-year-old startup.” “The time was ripe. COVID had blown everything up,” Tim Fitzpatrick, the executive vice president of the Tribune, told TheWrap. “And I’ll tell you, it was the absolute right decision.” The newspaper’s move to a nonprofit model had been in the works since 2019, when the Tribune successfully applied for 501(c)(3) status with the IRS, making it the first legacy newspaper in the U.S. to fully become a nonprofit. Still, the official transition to nonprofit status on April 1, 2020, happened two weeks after the pandemic began rearing its ugly head in the U.S. and made abundantly clear how necessary it was for the Tribune to move away from a for-profit business model that relied so heavily on advertising. Also Read: How the Pandemic Has Accelerated the Decimation of Local News Outlets “Most of the slaughter, if you will, of the early pandemic was on the ad side,” Fitzpatrick said. But...

Read original story How the Nonprofit Salt Lake Tribune Became a ‘150-Year-Old Startup’ At TheWrap