THE VIEW FROM HERE
BY N A ME H E R E
THIS MAGAZINE HAS BEEN IN THE WORKS SINCE 1847. BY JESSE HYDE
I
n the spring of 1847, William W. Phelps arrived at Winter Quarters, Nebraska, an encampment of roughly 3,000 Latter-day Saints. Huddled in huts, dugouts and tents along the Missouri River, the Saints, fleeing persecution, had been waiting all winter to set off for the West, in search of their Zion. When Phelps arrived, the first company of pioneers was readying wagon trains headed to the Salt Lake Valley. But Phelps would not be among them, he was told. Instead, he would go east, in search of a printing press. “This people can not live without intelligence,” Brigham Young wrote in a letter he sent with Phelps, urging church members in the East to help secure a printing press, which they did, in Boston. It would arrive in Salt Lake City two years later, following the same dusty trail the pioneers trekked. When the first issue of the Deseret News was printed on that press in 1850 it proclaimed: “When we speak, we shall speak freely, without regard to men or party.” Its motto was truth or liberty. Its price was 15 cents. In the 170 years since, the Deseret News has become the paper of record for a people, a place and a culture. That people (or “this people,” as Brigham Young called them), has changed, as has the Deseret News. Our readers are now scattered all over the world, with millions reading 6 DESERET MAGAZINE
us online every month, and most (70 %) living outside Utah. They turn to the Deseret News to better understand the culture and place from which they come. The magazine you’re holding in your hands is a continuation of the legacy that began on that original press, to create a record “worth preserving so that our children’s children may read the doings of their fathers, which otherwise might have been forgotten.” As you flip through the pages of the inaugural issue, you’ll find thoughtful essays on politics, culture and faith, deeply reported narratives and profiles, beautiful art and stunning photography. We hope to help readers navigate an increasingly complex world, giving them the information and insights needed to live authentic lives rooted in heritage and values. Through our reporting and essays, readers will better understand the world they inhabit and its intersection with broader culture. This is the power of journalism. And if done well, we believe we can provide something missing from the national media landscape: a perspective and voice unique to who we are, and where we come from. This is the view from the edge of the Rocky Mountains, a view with the great interior West at our feet, looking out into the world. This is the view from here. PORTRAIT BY RANDY GLASS
