After switching between three Utah dailies, Davis resident Georgia Busey finally decided to stick with Ogden's Standard-Examiner. Busey said next to Utah's other newspapers, she feels the Standard-Examiner does the best job reporting on local news and informing the public of relevant issues.

Along with nearly 63,000 others, Busey compares the Standard-Examiner with other Utah dailies. She said the paper targets its audience well and gives residences what they want, local coverage and breaking news. However, some critics say that overall, Utah newspapers don't give the public what they need- investigative reporting.

The Standard-Examiner, concedes that investigative reporting is not a priority.

"Investigative reporting is not our top priority," said assistant city editor Shauna Lund, "the paper just doesn't have the resources for it."

The paper's priority is community news and breaking news. "The quality of our breaking news coverage is first class," said Standard-Examiner managing editor Ron Thornburg. "It's as good as or superior to the work done at other newspapers."

The Standard-Examiner's other strong contribution is its community focus. Religion editor April Adams Handley said in her 13 years at the Standard-Examiner, the paper's focus has become local news coverage.

"The Standard-Examiner's strength is its community news," said reporter Brian Saxton. "That's why people pick us up."

BYU assistant professor, Eliza Tanner Hawkins said community news should be the main focus of a local newspaper. "The function [of the paper] is to serve the local community," Hawkins said. "If they don't do that, they are failing in their purpose."

While breaking news and community news are the Standard-Examiner's stronger points, investigative reporting is not. This departs from a tradition of investigative reporting that was associated with the Standard-Examiner when reporter Don Baker worked for them in the 1970s and 1980s.

"We haven't had such a reporter since Don Baker," Thornburg said. "He was an experienced reporter and knew how to do the research, had the sources, and had experience and expertise to do investigative reporting."

After Baker left the Standard-Examiner, investigative reporting dwindled because readers did not demand it. From surveys, the newspaper found out that what people wanted to read in community newspapers are stories that affect the community, Lund said. "That has driven investigative reporting to a backseat."

While investigative reporting may not be a priority now, Handley said it should become one. "Times are changing and we have to change to keep up," Handley said. "We need more in-depth reporting."

However Thornburg said investigative reporting is not going to be a top priority anytime soon. Due to limited resources, the paper has to be more selective about picking which stories to work on, Thornburg said.

"You need more time to write in-depth stories," Saxton said. "We don't have a big staff, but yet despite that fact, we beat them (the competing newspapers) up and down Davis county day in and day out."

The Standard-Examiner has 12 reporters who cover hard news, but none of them are dedicated to in-depth reporting.

"It would be so nice if we could have a couple reporters to turn lose and focus on investigative reporting, but it's not possible economically," Saxton said.

While no single person is specifically assigned to in-depth reporting, Lund said they consider each of their reporters to be investigative reporters.

Every reporter does his own degree of investigative reporting, Saxton said. "Without it your story wouldn't be very accurate."

However most reporters don't have time to go into investigative reporting because they have to cover the basic, bread and butter stories, Handley said

"Investigating a story is a lot harder to do," said marketing director Craig Bielik. "There is more information, but it is harder to get to the real root of stories." It takes more time to write, time that the news reporters may not have.

While the Standard-Examiner may not have a quantity of resources, they do have quality among their staff according to Handley. She said the quality of the reporters was one of the main reasons she decided to return to the newspaper.

"The staff really cares. They care about their community. They care about their work," Saxton said. "I think the people trust us. People give us information first that they wouldn't give other papers. We are generally ahead of the other papers despite them having more resources."

Saxton said since he has been working in the community for over a decade, he has developed strong relationships with sources that call him when something newsworthy happens.

While the reporters are not specifically assigned to write investigative stories, they do write them on their own. "If a reporter on his beat discovers a story, he has to work it in with other news breaking stories," Thornburg said.

Saxton said he writes one investigative story every two weeks. By investigative, he means "something I didn't just pull out of a meeting. It's stories that take me out into the community to follow up on information."

To look at the quality of the Standard-Examiner's news stories, the writer and students in a BYU reporting class, compared Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday newspaper from May 19, 21, and 23. They analyzed the newspaper's content and ranked each story in the Standard-Examiner using a Milquetoast News Evaluation Chart with a scale of 1 to 10. (See chart attached)

The ranking numbers correspond to a degree of news quality: 1- advertising based, 2- public relations originated, 3- syndicated or outside institutions, 4- soft news, 5- wire service copy and/or general news written by full-time staff, 6- interpretation, analysis, background, something that goes beyond general news, 7- enterprise reporting, advanced reporting, mild muckraking, public affairs, in-depth reporting, 8- investigative reporting, 9- precision reporting, 10- original in-depth muckraking work.

The average story for the week ranked just under a five. Of all the stories, 83 percent ranked a five or lower. During this week, 65 percent of all the stories published were from wire services. The majority of these wire stories ranked four or five. This left the remaining 18 percent of stories ranking a three of below.

These numbers are not surprising considering the newspaper's resources. "Because of our small staff we are mainly community reporters," Lund said.

Approximately 37 percent of all the news stories during this week were dedicated to local or state news. The rest of the paper focused on breaking news, which is normal according to Thornburg.

"Most Utah newspapers devote almost all their resources to breaking news instead of investigative reporting," Thornburg said.

Breaking news is always the first priority, Saxton said. "I think investigating community news is the second priority."

Of all the articles between May 19 and 23, the percent of stories that ranked above a five, beyond basic news releases, sports, and wire copy, was approximately 17 percent. This means that 17 percent of the news stories that week went deeper than the basic news, interpreting, analyzing, and going beyond the obvious. Out of 53 in-depth stories for Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday, none of them ranked above a seven, going into original, precision reporting.

Bielik said there isn't enough in-depth reporting in the news, both national and locally. "Our own newspaper doesn't do enough," Bielik said. This was one of the complaints from Orem residents Lindsey and Tyler Holm.

The Holms said they were disappointed with Utah's press. "I had high expectations coming to Utah. I felt that where the church had such a dominant influence, stressing education, that the press would offer more," Tyler Holm said. "Rather than expecting more, I'm getting less."

While other people like Busey enjoy the press because of the local news focus, the Holms dislike it for exactly that reason.

"Everyone refers to Utah as a bubble," Tyler Holm said. "Because of that, the news doesn't look outward, and the people look inward."

People like living in their bubble because they don't have to deal with all the conflict that goes on outside in the world, said Provo resident Cheryl Savage.

"The news doesn't cover certain topics because people don't want to read it," Holm said, topics that Holms said he wants to read about. "Utah papers don't cover national topics as well," Lindsey Holm said. "So I read national papers more than local papers."

However, Hawkins said these local newspapers are not expected to excel on national news. "I wouldn't pick up a local paper if I wanted to read a national story," Hawkins said. But a lack of national stories was the main reason why the Holms stopped reading the local papers.

Compared to the national press, the Holms have criticized the Utah press as being soft, a criticism it has received before.

"It's not that we are soft, it's that the reader's desire is different," Saxton said. Utah's newspapers target a different audience than the typical national audience. Saxton said the fact that 80 percent of the population is LDS affects Utah's readership, both why they read, how often they read, and what they want to read.

"The belief that most Utah newspaper readers don't want unnecessary conflict is true," Saxton said.

This may be one reason why Utah's press is less aggressive; their target audience is less aggressive in what they want from newspapers.

"It's not as aggressive as the national press," Thornburg said. The reason for this is a combination of several factors. "It's a combination of the readership that does not demand it and does not necessarily want to see," Thornburg said.

People don't seem to be as interested in the news here, Lindsey Holm said. "I rarely see people waiting in line for a bus or at the grocery store, reading a paper."

After living in Utah for eight years, Thornburg said he made the observation that Utah readers prefer that controversy and conflict be kept behind the scenes. "People don't want to talk about controversial issues publicly," he said.

Perhaps this is one reason for Utah's below national average readership. According to census data Utah's per capita readership of .15 is below the national average of .20. It seems that families are too busy to read.

"Utahns have large families, church callings, piano practice, soccer practice, and other activities," Lindsey Holm said. "People here have a different set of priorities and interests. Family comes first, then church. The priority is not the news."

Families are just go-go-go here with no time for breaks, Saxton said. "They're usually a mom or dad with five kids in a van. They are so busy in their own life they don't have time to change the world."

Saxton said he is a part of that busy culture. "I wrote for a newspaper for years. My wife never unfolded it because she was too busy folding diapers. But later, as the kids grew up, she had time to read."

While Utah families may be especially busy, they are still interested in what's going on in the community.

"It's a two-edged sword, you are never going to see newspaper readership skyrocket through the roof," Saxton said. "But in turn, I don't think it will every bottom out, because Utah families have a tendency to be ingrained in community and want to know what's going on in their community."

It might be part of the LDS culture to be busy and for people to avoid conflict, Hawkins said. "But I don't know if that means they don't read newspapers."

While the statewide readership is low, the readership in the Standard-Examiner's area is better. "Our readership is about average for our area," Thornburg said. "About 50 to 60 percent of the households within our area subscribe to the Standard-Examiner."

The reason for this is because the Standard-Examiner does a good job in relating news to the readers, Saxton said. "You need to dish it up to Utah views so they can eat it and like it too," he said.

Utah readers approach the media differently. "They trust their media more here, people are more trusting," Saxton said. "The media has a greater responsibility because these people believe us, so we better make sure we get it right."

Saxton said his goal when reporting is to tell the readers the bottom line, "to portray to the reader what the issue is and how it directly impacts them." This is what makes a quality story, relating to the readers.

"The bottom line comes down to quality," Holm said. "If readers don't like the quality of the paper, there are so many diversified options to choose from as to how to get your news. You don't have to get news from the newspaper." Holm said he no longer reads the paper. Instead, he uses the internet to stay informed.

Since there are so many other ways to get information these days, newspapers have had to work harder to attract readers. The competition with other news media such as television, magazines, and the internet, is one reason for the decrease in investigative reporting, Bielik said.

"The competition has made us work harder to make our stories interesting to our readers, to find an angle that is unique to us," Thornburg said. "To find something they haven't heard or seen before."

Saxton has worked for the Standard-Examiner for 15 years, looking for those stories with unique angles. Saxton said as a reporter, he has a lot of freedom about what stories he writes. "They turn us lose. We are responsible for finding our own stories." He said he finds about 80 percent of his stories. The rest are assigned.

However, reporters are not the only people who affect a newspapers quality. Another contributing factor is the advertising. The $10.75 a month that subscribers pay only covers 20 percent of the paper's operating cost. The other 80 percent comes form advertising, Bielik said. As managing director, Bielik said his goal is gaining and retaining costumers, both readers and advertisers. "If you don't have readers, you can't have advertisers, but if you don't have advertisers, you can't pay for paper," Bielik said.

The problem comes from trying to balance between what they want. "Readers and advertisers have different desires," Bielik said. "Readers want the ads all in one place. Advertisers don't want that." They don't want to be placed next to another advertisement and don't want all the ads to be in the same place so readers could easily skip over it.

"As a reader, you would like to have a chart that compares phone prices, and advertisers don't want that," Bielik said. It's a continual battle. Bielik said the way he decides between the desires of the advertisers and readers is on a case by case basis.

For example, "if Chili's has a huge case of food poisoning, we have a responsibility to let people know," Bielik said. "It would not be uncommon for Chili's to call and say, 'I spend millions on advertising, can you hold the story.' We would probably say, 'sorry, it's news.' "

When there is something a business doesn't want the paper to print, Biliek said they try to be fair by getting both sides of the story, but their decision to print a story does not stem necessarily from a company threatening to pull their ads.

It is a continual battle to keep the editorials and ads separate, Bielik said. For example, "people call and say we need to get an article on Salt Lake Art Festival," Bielik said. "I can't guarantee it, but will take the information to the staff who decides if it will interest the readers. I can't force them to write it."

Problems between advertising and the paper's responsibility to inform the public don't come up too often, Bielik said because the paper's priority is to inform the public of the news and advertisers know that.

The bottom line comes down to whether a newspaper is fulfilling its social responsibility to inform the public. Its duty is not to supply the reader with ads and entertainment. These are simply a means to achieve the end, to inform the public. The ability to fulfill that responsibility is determined by the paper's funds, staff size and quality, and available resources. Unfortunately these funds do not always permit papers, especially smaller papers, to write as many investigative stories. While the Standard-Examiner may not be leading the way with its investigative reporting, it is fulfilling its social responsibility of informing the public of what is going on in their local community.

Copyright Brigham Young University 15 Jul 2002