A 155-Year-Old Newspaper Made All Its Journalism Free

The Salt Lake Tribune, Utah's largest and oldest newspaper, has removed its digital paywall entirely, making all of its journalism free to read for anyone in the country for the first time in the publication's 155-year history. The move, which took effect this week, is the result of years of planning and a deliberate pivot from a subscriber model to a donation-and-membership model, built on the belief that trusted, independent local journalism should function as a public good rather than a product available only to those who can pay for it. The Tribune became a nonprofit in 2019 and spent the years since rebuilding its financial foundation, eventually pledging to drop its paywall if it could raise one million dollars in a single year. A local couple contributed that million-dollar anchor gift, a matching campaign exceeded the target by half, and 87 percent of existing subscribers who were tested on the free model chose to keep supporting the paper voluntarily.

The Tribune's CEO and executive editor, Lauren Gustus, said the organization cannot afford to continue limiting who has access to independent and trusted news, and that making the journalism is only the first step: ensuring people can find it and read it is equally part of the mission. Former digital subscribers have been converted to members and given a range of optional support tiers, from five to twenty-six dollars a month, with the highest tier receiving twice-weekly print editions. In a test run with a randomized group of subscribers, the paper found that being told the journalism was now free to them did not lead most people to stop paying, because most subscribers had chosen to pay not to get past a wall but to support something they believed in. Media observers across the country are watching the model closely, and the Tribune says the response since the paywall came down has been exactly what they hoped for: more people reading, and enough of them choosing to support it that the mission remains intact.

Source:https://www.sltrib.com/news/2026/05/15/why-salt-lake-tribune-dropped-its/