Dozens of Tribune journalists work to share reporting with you every day, and you see their bylines and cutlines, as well as their podcasts and newsletters. What you don’t see are some of the numbers behind these stories.
Here’s a look at The Tribune — by the numbers — in 2024.
82,431: Miles Tribune journalists logged in pursuit of stories throughout the state, from Beryl to Bluff. To put it another way, we drove the length of Utah about 235 times.
1: Law changed, in the wrong direction, after Utah Governor Spencer Cox signed a bill into law that excludes public officials’ calendars from the public record.
2: Times Tribune reporters were sued by Attorney General Sean Reyes in an effort to prevent public records from being released.
$66,000: What we expect we will pay in legal fees in 2024. This is to defend lawsuits filed against The Tribune to prevent records from being released and also to seek records that officials are stalling on or wrongfully withholding. This, in my view, is money well spent. Our team at Parsons Behle & Latimer is stacked with experts and we’re lucky to have ‘em.
4,700: Approximate number of staff-written stories published from Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2024.
14+2: 14 staff stories and 2 editorials about the 14 books now banned in Utah’s public schools. The new law requires that a book be removed if at least three school districts determine it amounts to “objective sensitive material.” Six school districts — Alpine, Jordan, Nebo, Davis, Tooele County and Washington County — have driven the 14 book bans.
$26.24: Our dirty soda budget in 2024. We did it for journalism.
20,488: The average number of views for a Tribune video on TikTok over the last three months. This means that today the typical Tribune TikTok is watched by more people than the number of people who read the typical story.
$35,000: What The Tribune paid this year for defamation and libel insurance. We are working to strengthen this protection in 2025 due to a rise in local and national claims, which are increasingly being used as a means to limit the reporting abilities of a news organization.
94: Women who got a second chance. In August and following Tribune reporting, the Utah Supreme Court ruled sex assault is not health care and civil lawsuits — including those filed by 94 women against a Utah County doctor — don’t have to meet the strict limitations set in the state’s medical malpractice law.
While we invest resources in uncovering truth, the number of people who are spreading lies continues to grow. If you supported The Tribune this year with a donation or a subscription, you have helped to build community. And you have helped to sustain this massive effort.
I couldn’t be more grateful. Thank you. Our list of stories is long.
