| Description |
UTAH PRESS ASSOCIATION selves. Adding flesh and muscle to that framework would require far more space than this text affords. Not since 1938, when the late J. Cecil Alter published his significant Early Utah Journalism, has the ongoing story of Utah newspapers been updated. In these intervening fifty-eight years the tides of change have brought major revisions in ownership and personnel to a majority of the state's publications. Omitted are only a few family-held newspapers where the surname hasn't been altered though the given name that precedes it has. As in James, William, Jack and Steven Wallis; James, Alex, Joel, Scott and Clayton Dunn; Abraham, Roy and Allan Gibson ~ among others. Surprisingly, for a profession in which maintenance of records is of paramount importance, Utah Press Association has been grossly careless with its own historic papers. A combination of circumstances contributes to the resultant dearth of materials. Some portfolios were misplaced and others misfiled. Some were discarded in error and, sad to say, some were assigned to trashcans with angry deliberation by disgruntled employees. The result was that countless hours were spent in often futile pursuit of what would've been information of value. All of which makes this treatise somewhat less comprehensive than it might've been. But it's still a compilation of value to an organization which has thrived for over a century in spite of its poor record in file-handling. While every effort has been made to be historically correct, it's not unlikely that bugaboo of researchers and writers --inaccuracy - will rear its ugly head. Despite his carefully crafted work, even meticulous Cecil Alter had a few errors in his invaluable book. For any flaws of omission or commission which do come to light in this manuscript, an in-advance apology is offered. It'd also be well to explain, for those who may become curious about it, that the association's name alternates in this text between Utah Press Association and Utah State Press Association. Though it's explained in the narrative, it |
