Jon Huntsman Sr. ‘excited for the second coming of The Salt Lake Tribune’

If Paul Huntsman succeeds in buying The Salt Lake Tribune, it will fulfill what at times has seemed an all-but-unattainable goal to his billionaire father.

"This has been amazing," 78-year-old Jon Huntsman Sr. said of the pending Tribune purchase. "In my opinion, it's absolutely a miracle that a situation like this can be pulled off."

With the difficult and intermittent negotiations to buy the paper from New York-based Digital First Media still yet to be finalized, the Huntsmans say they are legally barred from discussing details of the deal.

Paul Huntsman, 46, has declined for now to comment on any particulars. His dad, though, granted an interview to offer general insights into his son's role and give a few signals on the newspaper's future direction.

"We're excited for the second coming of The Salt Lake Tribune," the elder Huntsman said at his offices on Salt Lake City's east bench. "We're enthused to do everything we can as a family to make it come back and to expand circulation."

He said Paul Huntsman has "great confidence" in Tribune Editor and Publisher Terry Orme. The younger Huntsman may join Orme on The Tribune's three-person editorial board, Huntsman Sr. said, but he is unlikely to seek drastic adjustments or inject himself into day-to-day newsroom operations.

"He's going to listen carefully and let the people who are doing a great job at The Tribune keep doing it," Huntsman said of his son. "He isn't a man to come in and make changes or do anything like that. If it isn't broken, you don't fix it."

Paul Huntsman has said he plans to split his time between The Tribune and managing some of the family's other private investments.

Huntsman Sr. also sought to assure Tribune readers that the paper will remain independent. "We're not owned or controlled by any outside entities or a front for anybody."

While his family is predominantly Mormon and has members who are leading Republicans ­— including former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. — the Huntsman patriarch said they are a highly diverse clan with regard to religion and politics.

"We're really a mixed bag," he said. "It's just a nice family to have associated with The Tribune, which has to appeal to everybody and every religion and every ethnic group."

The founder and benefactor of the Huntsman Cancer Institute in Salt Lake City also said politics "is way down the list" of family priorities these days, compared with the causes of curing cancer and, he said, "humanitarian interests for the underserved populations of Utah and the Intermountain West."

By his account, the Huntsman bid to acquire Utah's largest daily began nearly four years ago.

The industrialist-philanthropist said he initially joined with media magnate and former Tribune owner Dean Singleton as equal partners in seeking the paper, with an offer of $15 million. They were turned down.

Although both men have struggled with poor health — Huntsman has battled cancer and Singleton, multiple sclerosis — they kept trying, proposing new deals again and again. Singleton has described the effort as pursuing "one of the most important items still left on my professional bucket list."

Paul Huntsman, who runs the Huntsman family's $1.1 billion private equity investment fund, entered the picture about two years ago, his father said.

"Paul said, 'Dad, do you mind if I join you for some of the meetings?' " recalled Huntsman Sr., who welcomed his involvement. "And Paul really began to pick up the momentum, with the negotiation skills and talent that Dean and I had tried to display."

Singleton dropped out as an active bidder about 18 months ago, citing health concerns — though the former owner of the MediaNews Group chain, with more than 50 dailies at its peak including The Tribune, continued to advise the Huntsmans.

Then last spring, Huntsman Sr. said, "my health was such that I just didn't have the strength to continue on and keep all of our other businesses going around the world."

"It was like a basketball game," he said. "Dean and I played the first three quarters and Paul did the last quarter, where it really counted."

tsemerad@sltrib.com