This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Yes, there was a lot of bad news in 2016. Especially the last few months.

— 2016: The Year in Forty-Three New Yorker Postscripts — Nicholas Thompson | The New Yorker

Plus:

— Carrie Fisher on Princess Leia: 'I can't not be her.' — Sean P. Means | The Salt Lake Tribune

and

— 'Watership Down' author Richard Adams dies at age 96 — Gregory Katz | The Associated Press

But there was good news as well.

— The Salt Lake Tribune chooses Madi Barney, who pushed for change at BYU, as Utahn of the Year — Jennifer Napier-Pearce | The Salt Lake Tribune

" ... In 2016, Barney transformed the conversation on campus rape in Utah and emerged as a powerful voice in the nationwide debate on sex crime, one that has bounced from Stanford's Brock Turner to Baylor University to Donald Trump. Perhaps most important, she started a dialogue in which many victims shared their accounts of sexual violence for the first time publicly. ..."

— Proof that life is getting better for humanity, in 5 charts — Max Roser | Vox

" ... In the long time in which people lived in a non-growth world, the only way to become better off was if someone else became worse off. Your own good luck was your neighbor's bad luck. Economic growth changed that: Growth made it possible for you to be better off when others become better off. ..."

— 11 things to think about when you lose hope over the rise of white nationalism — Jenée Desmond-Harris |Vox

"The number of women of color in the Senate quadrupled. Simone Manuel won. 2016 wasn't 100 percent terrible. ..."

And, the really good news. At least for people like me:

— 'Profitable' Washington Post adding more than five dozen journalists — Ken Doctor |Politico

"Twenty-sixteen was the year The Washington Post came of age — again. In its audience growth, in the ambitiousness of its journalism, in its impact on the American conversation, the Post became the U.S.'s fourth national newspaper company, joining The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and USA Today.

"Now, come 2017, the Post seems to be doing something unique in daily journalism: It is adding journalists early in the year. ...

" ... One other learning: As the Post expanded its op-ed contributors and volume, 'opinion' stories drove more readers to subscribe than any other content type. ..."