Salt Lake City Weekly

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Salt Lake City Weekly
City Weekly's "Best of Utah 04"
Type	Alternative weekly
Format	Tabloid
Owner	Copperfield Publishing, Inc.
Publisher	Jim Rizzi
Editor	Holly Mullen
Founded	1984 (as the Private Eye)
Headquarters	248 South Main St. Salt Lake City, UT 84101  United States
Circulation	60,500[1]
Website: slweekly.com

The 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 its life as the Private Eye. The City Weekly is published and dated for every Thursday by Copperfield Publishing Inc. of which John Saltas is majority owner and president.

Contents 1 History 1.1 Private Eye Weekly 1.2 Salt Lake City Weekly 1.3 Editors 1.4 Publishers 2 The City Weekly and politics 3 Relationships to other Salt Lake papers 4 Current features 5 References 6 External links

[edit] History

John Saltas founded what would become the Salt Lake City Weekly in June, 1984. He called his monthly publication the 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 get promotional information out.

In 1988, the 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. The "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.^[2]

[edit] Private Eye Weekly

In 1992 the Private Eye Weekly emerged as a weekly tabloid-style alternative paper with distribution outlets in Salt Lake City, Ogden, Park City and Utah County. Saltas hired his first editor, then-KSL-TV journalist Tom Walsh. Walsh was a veteran writer with experience from the alternative Phoenix New Times, and he took a significant salary cut because of his enthusiasm for the new paper.^[2]

The Private Eye's early contributors included Ben Fulton (who served as editor in chief until spring 2007), Christopher Smart (currently a reporter for The Salt Lake Tribune), Mary Dickson, Katharine Biele, Lynn Packer, and notable Utah defense attorney Ron Yengich.

From 1992 onward, reporter Lynn Packer scooped many stories about then-Salt Lake City Mayor Deedee Corradini, and Bonneville Pacific, an energy company.^[3] Ron Yengich's relationship with the paper would end days after he was retained as Corradini's attorney in 1996. (I don't think this is accurate. I know I've seen contributions from Yengich to the paper in recent years.) Yengich had mocked the mayor in a Private Eye column just days before becoming her representative.^[4]

In June 1996, Tom Walsh resigned from the paper to become an executive of another alternative weekly, the Miami New Times.^[2] The Private Eye hosted the annual AAN convention May 29-31, 1996, after Walsh had already announced his resignation.

During 1996 the Private Eye Weekly's circulation outgrew independent Salt Lake City presses, so the paper made printing arrangements with the publisher of the Ogden Standard-Examiner. Content for the City Weekly is sent by computer to the press in Ogden, and bundles of printed papers are trucked back south into Salt Lake City. The paper also began posting all content online in 1996, originally using the URL www.avenews.com. The City Weekly is currently available at www.slweekly.com and starting in 2005 began posting additional information on a sister-commerce site, cwlistings.com

In the early 1990s the paper began giving out yearly awards that were chosen by readers. The categories and pages devoted to the "Best of Utah" issues expanded over time, and these issues are typically the largest published all year. Many establishments proudly display City Weekly "Best of..." awards, and often have several years' worth mounted above the cash register.

In 1996 the paper began recognizing local music in the "SLAMMY awards" (Salt Lake Area Music & More). As with the "Best of Utah" issues, locals are encouraged to vote for their favorite local bands and albums in different categories. The paper also hosts a party featuring several of the winners.

[edit] Salt Lake City Weekly

In 1997 the growing paper changed its name to the Salt Lake City Weekly. This name is abbreviated to City Weekly on the paper's masthead. Many people misunderstood the paper's original name, assuming that the Private Eye was a detective agency.^[5]

The paper published stories of the 2002 Winter Olympics bribery scandal. Discoveries that International Olympic Committee members apparently accepted gifts in return for votes to select Salt Lake City as the Olympic host erupted into an internationally-significant story in 1999 and 2000.

During the late 1990s, a suit to allow club and liquor advertising began making its way through local courts. The City Weekly had tried and failed to persuade the state's Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control to lift Utah's peculiar restrictions on liquor advertising. National media like the Wall Street Journal and USA Today were published without constraints on their advertising.^[6] The case dragged on for years in Utah District Court before Judge David Sam, who rejected the claim that advertising liquor in Utah was bound by national precedent.^[7] The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned this ruling on July 24, 2001 when the court remanded plaintiff's request for appeal on the district court's ruling to deny preliminary injunction.^[8] The Tenth Circuit stated that the plaintiffs satisfied requirements for an injunction, forcing the state to allow liquor advertising. In August, the Utah Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission began drafting amendments to legalize liquor advertising in print, in restaurants, and on billboards. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) thought that the Commission's proposed changes went too far and urged retention of the old rules.^[9] John Saltas chided the LDS Church in an editorial, but offered them a free full-page ad so they could explain their position against liquor advertising. The Church had not previously advertised in the paper, which was often considered anti-Mormon, but they took Saltas up on his offer. On November 29, 2001 the City Weekly published the LDS statement. In the same issue, City Weekly featured its first liquor ad, for Jim Beam. Saltas told the Tribune that the timing was "just an ironic coincidence."^[10]

In 2001, Gayle Ruzicka, president of the conservative Utah Eagle Forum, spoke extensively against the City Weekly. Ruzicka said that she found same-sex personal classified ads "pornographic", and other features distasteful, and (unsuccessfully) lobbied to have the newspaper banned from government buildings. She furthermore wanted rules to prevent children from reading the paper, but was unable to effect change. Instead, the Eagle Forum pushed for a conservative "alternative to the alternatives."

In the summer of 2002, the City Weekly's format was imitated by the Utah Weekly, a short-lived alternative weekly with a conservative bent. This publication encountered financial problems. Irregular publication ensued as the paper was unable to live up to its "weekly" title. In spite of some conservatives' support, the Utah Weekly folded in September 2003 after 70 weeks, having produced only 25 issues. Its owners, Rich Kuchinsky and Mike Weber, were unable to pay writers and creditors.

In October 2002, editor Christopher Smart left the City Weekly for a higher-paying news position with The Salt Lake Tribune. Saltas named John Yewell as editor; Yewell was let go after nine months. The paper's editorship was turned temporarily over to Ben Fulton, a long-time associate editor at the paper. Later Saltas announced that Fulton's editorship would be permanent. During his many years at the paper, up to his leave as editor in April 2007, Fulton garnered many editorial awards, including a Hearst Award for long-form journalism, as well as several first-place awards from the Utah Chapter Society of Professional Journalists and the Utah Press Association.

As the paper gained popularity and staff, the load on John Saltas decreased. In 2003 he stepped aside as publisher, naming Jim Rizzi as his successor. Rizzi, with over 20 years of alternative weekly experience, was groomed for the position. Saltas had hired him as a vice president in 2002. After being uninvolved with the paper's operations for several months, Rizzi asked Saltas to contribute a weekly column. Saltas now writes a light-hearted, somewhat blog-like column called "Private Eye" where he talks aimlessly about his favorite Utah Jazz players (especially Carlos Arroyo), his Greek heritage, and jokes that he's soon going to be fired.

In April 2007 Holly Mullen was announced as the paper's new editor. She had been an area journalist for nine years, most recently (until January 2007) as a columnist for the Salt Lake Tribune. In addition to her renown as a top-rate reporter and writer, she is now noted as the wife of former Salt Lake City Mayor Ted Wilson.

The Salt Lake City Weekly is currently available at over 2000 locations, including sites outside the Salt Lake Valley (such as the Tooele Valley).

[edit] Editors

• 1984 - 1992: John Saltas
• 1992 - 1996: Tom Walsh
• 1996 - Oct 2002: Christopher Smart
• Nov 2002 - Aug 2003: John Yewell
• Aug 2003 - April 2007: Ben Fulton
• April 2007 -  : Holly Mullen

[edit] Publishers

• 1984 - Nov 2003: John Saltas
• Nov 2003 - present: Jim Rizzi

[edit] The City Weekly and politics

Given its bar-hopping roots, the City Weekly has a liberal, non-Mormon, anti-establishment bias. Some, like Gayle Ruzicka, claim the paper is anti-Mormon and panders to the "homosexual agenda." Others feel the paper gives a voice to Utah's non-LDS community.

The City Weekly also covers local politics.

Apart from covering scandals about former Democratic Salt Lake City Mayor Deedee Corradini, the liberal 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 the City Weekly 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. The City Weekly endorsed Rocky Anderson in a crowded primary. Anderson was an attorney who was once retained by the paper. 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, the 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 to not seek re-election by the state Republican Party. In the ensuing election replacement candidate and developer Ellis Ivory was defeated by Democrat Peter Corroon.

[edit] Relationships to other Salt Lake papers

The 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, the Newspaper Agency Corporation) launched In Utah This Week, a non biased alternative paper focused on delivering current and up coming events to the local community.

Of the two daily papers in Salt Lake City, The Salt Lake Tribune and the Deseret Morning News, the City Weekly surprisingly values the LDS Church-owned Deseret Morning News for its investigative reporting in spite of its conservative editorial page.

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 Newspaper Agency Corporation facilities as the Deseret News through the two paper's joint operating agreement. Thus the 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. The City Weekly asserted that increased cooperation and expansion of the two daily papers under Singleton's Tribune leadership hurt surrounding papers' viability.

[edit] Current features

The City Weekly tends to be geared toward a younger, more urban, and more liberal audience than the area's other papers. Some of its more prominent features include its reviews of art films (Scott Renshaw), restaurants (Ted Scheffler), local music groups (Portia Early), scheduled art shows and events, and television (Bill Frost). Founder Saltas writes a train-of-thought column called "Private Eye". There is an opinion page which typically has two articles, including one from editor Holly Mullen, and "Hits & Misses" by Ted McDonough. The paper has a satire column called "DeeP end" written by D. P. Sorenson who, among other things, jokingly claims to have been Mitt Romney's missionary companion. It also carries syndicated columns such as "News Quirks" by Roland Sweet, and "Ask A Mexican" by Gustavo Arellano. Other syndicated features often seen in free alternative weeklies include 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 City Weekly also publishes a yearly Best of Utah guide and the "SLAMMy" Awards, a music guide (see also Music of Utah).

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Salt Lake City Weekly website
• AAN Profile: Salt Lake City Weekly