Three Kansas businessmen, Frederic Lockley, George F. Prescott and A.M. Hamilton, purchased the company in 1873 and turned it into an anti-Mormon newspaper which consistently backed the local Liberal Party.

In the edition announcing Young's death, the Tribune wrote:[3] He was illiterate and he has made frequent boast that he never saw the inside of a school house.

He was hierophant, and pretended to be in daily [communion] with the Almighty, and yet he was groveling in his ideas, and the system of religion he formulated was well nigh Satanic.In 1901, newly elected United States senator Thomas Kearns, a Roman Catholic,[4] and his business partner, David Keith,[5] secretly bought the Tribune.

It was phased out when the joint operating agreement was formed with the afternoon Deseret News, Salt Lake's daily newspaper owned by the LDS Church, in 1952.

In the late 1950s, in spite of reluctance from John Fitzpatrick about the future of television, Gallivan joined a measured Tribune investment with The Standard Corporation in Ogden, Utah, to build one of the first microwave and cable TV systems across northern Nevada.

John W. Gallivan, nephew of Mrs. Kearns, joined the Tribune in 1937 and succeeded Fitzpatrick as publisher in 1960, remaining as chairman until the merger with TCI, Inc. in 1997.

A buy-back agreement was put in place, providing for the Kearns family to reacquire The Tribune, after the IRS required a five-year holding period.

[11] In 2002, the Tribune became mired in controversy after employees sold information related to the Elizabeth Smart kidnapping case to The National Enquirer.

Many people, including several Tribune employees, opposed the move, stating that it would harm the economy of Salt Lake's downtown.

"[citation needed] After emerging from bankruptcy in 2010, MediaNews Group lost control of its ownership to a hedge fund, Alden Global Capital.

An anonymous note, delivered in disguised handwriting to Tribune offices in October, alleged that the LDS Church was secretly negotiating with Alden for this aim.

Interested parties and local citizens' activist groups subsequently organized, petitioned the US Department of Justice to become involved, and eventually filed a lawsuit alleging anti-trust violations.

[22] In July 2024, newsroom employees announced their intentions to unionize with the Denver Newspaper Guild and Communications Workers of America.

[24] In presidential elections, The Salt Lake Tribune endorsed George W. Bush in 2004;[25] Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012;[26][27] and Hillary Clinton in 2016.