The company also publishes 10 editions of Deseret Magazine per year.On March 31, 1847, while at Winter Quarters, Nebraska, the LDS Church's Quorum of the Twelve Apostles authorized William W. Phelps to "go east and procure a printing press" to be taken to the future Mormon settlement in the Great Basin.

[9]: 16  In April 1849 the press and other church property was loaded onto ox drawn wagons, and traveled with the Howard Egan Company along the Mormon Trail.

[10] The press was moved into a small adobe building (just east of the present site of the Hotel Utah) that also served as a coin mint for the settlers.

This first issue included the paper's prospectus, written by the editor Willard Richards, along with news from the United States Congress, and a report on the San Francisco 1849 Christmas Eve fire; an event which had occurred six months prior.

It was at first a weekly Saturday publication, and published in "pamphlet form" in hopes that readers would have the papers bound into volumes.

[9]: 73 During a turbulent time period, later known as the Utah War, the News presses and equipment were moved to the central and southern parts of the state.

That fall the presses were brought back to Salt Lake City and placed in the Council House, allowing the News to begin normal operations.

[9]: 75 The coming of the Pony Express to Utah in 1860 would bring changes to the paper, allowing news from the East to arrive in the Territory much faster.

Even so, the paper remained a weekly, with News extras being published with more frequency and temporary renamed The Pony Dispatch.

[9]: 125 In October 1861 the lines of the First Transcontinental Telegraph met in Salt Lake City, making the Pony Express obsolete, and bringing news to the Territory almost instantly.

In March 1862, the News and its staff moved from the Council House to the Deseret Store,[9]: 125  and in 1864 a steam-powered printing press arrived; it was placed in the basement the building.

This did not happen and the paper's assets and property were transferred back to The Deseret News Company on September 7, 1898; after almost six years under the control of the Cannon family.

[9]: 225–226 When the LDS Church regained direct control over the News, Horace G. Whitney was appointed business manager and Charles W. Penrose returned as editor.

[9]: 283–284 In 1926 the News once again moved into a new building, this time on Richard's Street (just south of the present Deseret Book store in City Creek Center.)

The paper had also formed The Deseret News Wireless Club, with members across the Western United States who would transcribe the radio bulletins and post them in their communities.

[9]: 269  In April 1922 the paper received a license to officially operate a radio station, with call letters KZN (later changed to KSL).

In September 1952, the owners of the News (LDS Church) and Tribune (Thomas Kearns Family) entered into a joint operating agreement (JOA), where each published separate editorial material while sharing printing, advertising and circulation costs.

This JOA was the brainchild of Tribune Publisher John F. Fitzpatrick who helped LDS President David O. McKay ensure the continuation of the Deseret News.

As the twentieth century ended, the Deseret News found itself embroiled in a contentious and often public battle with The Salt Lake Tribune, centered around the terms of their joint operating agreement, the desire of the Deseret News to switch from afternoon to morning publication, and ownership changes at the Tribune.

The website was meant for those outside the Salt Lake area, who had to pay long-distance calling charges when dialed into the Crossroads network.

[27] In October 2016, breaking an 80-year tradition of staying out of U.S. presidential politics, the Deseret News editorial board urged its readers not to vote for Donald Trump.

[28] In October 2020, the Deseret News and The Salt Lake Tribune announced the dissolution of their decades-long Joint Operating Agreement to share printing facilities.

[32] In December 2020, the Deseret News editorial board again broke political neutrality by denouncing Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes's decision to support a lawsuit requesting that the US Supreme Court withhold the certified vote count from four states following the 2020 presidential election.

The Deseret News launched its monthly magazine in 2021,[38] which publishes ten times a year with a double issue in July/August and January/February.

The magazine covers the people and culture of the Deseret region (from the Sierras to the Rockies, from the border of Mexico to the Pacific Northwest) and its intersection with the broader world.

Mormon Times was created as a publication with its own independent circulation base and also as the Religion section of the Deseret News in January 2008.

[40] In July 2011, the Deseret News's religion section was renamed "Faith", with the Mormon Times label applying only to its LDS-themed content.

In the 1972–1986 period when Smart was the editor, Gordon B. Hinckley and Thomas S. Monson were among the presidents of the Deseret News Publishing Company.

During the summer of 2010 it was announced that the Deseret News for the first time ever would have a president and CEO; Clark Gilbert was appointed to this position.

[26][54] The Deseret News also created an editorial advisory board to work with Gilbert and Edwards; it consisted of people with a broad variety of backgrounds: The Deseret News reporter Robert Mullins won a Pulitzer Prize in 1962 for local reporting "for his resourceful coverage of a murder and kidnapping at Dead Horse Point State Park".