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Who Owns Them?

The Herald Journal is owned by Pioneer News Group, a company with its headquarters in Seattle, Washington (Bloomsberg, 2014).

 

How Many Are Owned By The Same Company?

The company owns “23 daily newspapers in Washington, Idaho, Utah, Montana and Oregon.” There are only two publications in Utah, which are The Herald Journal and Tremonton’s The Leader. (Pioneer, 2014).

 

Are They Owned By Independent Sources?

Pioneer News Group is independently owned by the Scripps family. It was formed in 1974 by James G. Scripp (State of the Media, 2012).

 

Annual Revenue?

There appears to be no official declaration of their revenue, so there’s no telling how much they make. However, one website estimated that they make between $1 million and $5 million annually, though there’s no way of knowing if that’s accurate (Company Info, 2013).

 

Where Do They Get Their Revenue?

They get their revenue from advertisements, print subscriptions and online subscriptions.

 

What’s their reader/viewer share?

The Journal has 14,000 subscribers and, including internet viewers, a total readership of 50,000 (Pioneer, 2014).

 

Is there a particular story that “made” this news venue particular popular?

There’s no one story that made the tribune popular, but it has received several awards from the Utah Press Association for its spot news stories, including a first place award for a story about a truck crashing into a hotel. It also received an award it 2013 for its breaking news story about same-sex stalls (2014, Pioneer News Group).

 

Was there a story that this news venue is particularly well known for scooping?

The Herald Journal is known for its breaking news, and it did a good job of covering the story of a 2005 van crash that killed several agriculture students and a professor (The Herald Journal, 2010).

 

How does the news site frame itself?

The newspaper’s slogan is, “empowering the community” (HJNews.com, 2014). This could mean the Herald Journal sees itself as an influential voice in the community it serves.

 

How is it perceived?

Based on its conservative readership in the Cache Valley area, the Herald Journal is perceived as a conservative paper. However, since it pulls some of its staff from recent university graduates and trains interns from USU, some of the stories can lean toward the liberal side as well.

GRADE: 55.13% F

Stories:

  1. She’s the Judge

  2. Hyrum shooting ruled justified

  3. Logan discusses possible e-cig ban

  4. Kurdish offensive targets Islamists

  5. Utah considers firing squad option

  6. Thanksgiving travel

Day 1: November 20, 2014

Day 2: November 20, 2014

Stories:

 

  1. Ags have no time for tears

  2. Aggies continue to roll with Myers

  3. Obama takes executive actions

  4. ‘‘Lights On’ event fetes after-school programs across Cache Valley

  5. New director names for Summerfest Arts Faire

  6. FDA Oks new, hard-to-abuse hydrocodone medication

  7. Fire chiefs aim for Logan Canyon cooperation

GRADE: 75.41% C

Day 3: November 22, 2014

Stories:

 

  1. Police investigate hit and run

  2. Florida crowd cheers Cosby in comedy performance

  3. Waste to cash?

  4. Center puts out avalanche warning

  5. Couple shares experience in Jordan

  6. Smokeout encourages quitting

  7. Clothing drive grows

  8. Open Enrollment causes issues

GRADE: 55.1% F

Analysis

The Herald Journal got two Fs and a C, but if you ask me, there was a flaw in the grading system and the Journal should have failed all three days. For some reason, a large amount of peripheral stories and a couple really good core stories brought the grade up to a C.

 

Most of the stories weren’t fair or diverse. The exception was generally their wire stories, which they did a good job of picking out. However, the paper’s reporters didn’t usually include diverse sources or share both sides of the issues.

 

Many of the stories were also peripheral. Because one of Cache Valley’s big attractions is Utah State University, the Herald Journal often covered stories about the Aggies or things going on at the campus. While these events would have been fine in a college paper, they weren’t as good in the city paper because they affect a much smaller percentage of the community and pass off as peripheral most of the time.

 

It was a little disappointing when the Journal decided to put sports stories on the front page. It looks like it was an effort to get people to pick up the paper. It was odd, though, because that edition actually had some good news stories deeper into the paper.

 

The Herald Journal deserved its low grades this time. While the stories were good sometimes, for the most part they were short, unfair stories that weren’t always well thought-out.

 

(The Herald Journal, 2014)

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