A new documentary, set to be released on Oct. 4, 2025, on KSL-TV, will chronicle the journey and evolution of Utah’s oldest continuously operating business and longest-running newspaper — the Deseret News — over its 175-year history.
“The Deseret News: 175 Years of Truth and Liberty” is a 22-minute exploration of the beginnings of the Deseret News in 1850, the value of the freedom press then and now and a vision for the future of the publication.
Many prominent political, religious and community figures from across the nation stepped forward to lend their voices to the project, including Gov. Spencer J. Cox and first lady Abby Cox; President Dallin H. Oaks, currently president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints; Michael Dimock, president of the Pew Research Center; Fraser Bullock, president and executive chair of Utah’s 2034 Winter Games Organizing Committee; Brad Wilcox, director of the National Marriage Project and a professor at the University of Virginia; and Robert P. George, director of the James Madison program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University.
“Speaking with many prominent people in and out of Utah about the Deseret News was more gratifying than I could have imagined,” said Sarah Jane Weaver, editor of the Deseret News, who was a producer on the project. “We feel the strength of a 175-year legacy and we think the work we’re doing today is as important as any time in our history. It’s meaningful to us to know that so many others feel the same way we do.”
In addition, employees of the Deseret News, including Doug Wilks, executive editor; Burke Olsen, publisher; Sarah Jane Weaver, editor; and long-time reporters and columnists Lee Benson and Lois Collins, are interviewed about their work and the paper’s influence on their own lives.
The film was shot and edited by The Lewis Brothers.