Professional movers spent most of Saturday morning trucking away bags of cables and computer equipment and boxes of reference materials, leaving the old second-floor newsroom at 143 S. Main St. quiet and bare. The Tribune's staff begins work today in its new home at The Gateway.
Thirty-five-year veteran Tribune reporter Tom Wharton said he'll miss the old office, but will take with him many fond memories of the men and women he has worked with over the past 3 1/2 decades, and those ghosts will live on.
"I think there will be sadness walking out of here tonight," Wharton said Friday, when most of the staff left The Tribune building for the last time. "I think I'll put it behind me and get to the new building and unpack all my birds [collection] and work crap I've got on my desk and not have it a sterile environment, but try to turn it into the home away from home.
"I fully expect to have a tear or two in my eye," he added. "It will be weird. It's going to be a really weird experience to go out of there having spent so many years here in the building."
The reason for the move is twofold, Editor Nancy Conway said. First, the new building provides a more efficient work space for its employees, as well as room for growth.
"One of the benefits of the new building is that we can have the entire news-gathering and presentation team on one floor, which will improve communications and efficiency and allow us to focus on our real job, which is putting out a good newspaper," she said.
"The second reason is this building that we're vacating is old and needs to be retrofitted and needs a lot of work," Conway said. "We cannot possibly stay here and have all that stuff done."
Readers still will get the quality paper they've come to expect.
"Dick Scudder, one of our owners, had said to me once when we talked about moving that it doesn't matter where The Tribune is, it matters what The Tribune does and I believe that wholeheartedly," Conway said. "The Tribune is its staff and it's the tradition of journalism. It's our commitment to public service and we'll take that with us to the new Tribune building and put out a good newspaper."
Tuesday's edition of the paper will be the first produced at the new facility.
"Our fervent hope is that Tuesday morning readers walk out on their doorstep and there's a great Tribune waiting for them," said Executive Editor Tom Baden, who compared the move to buying a new home.
"Chances are you're excited about your new house and it's great," he said. "It's going to be brighter. You got all these great things waiting for you and that's terrific. At the same time, there's been a lot of great work done in this newsroom by a lot of good journalists and you just want to take your time to kind of acknowledge that and honor it."
jbergreen@sltrib.com
How will The Tribune's move affect you?
* What is The Tribune's new address? Mail correspondence to: The Salt Lake Tribune, 90 S. 400 West, Suite 700, Salt Lake City, UT 84101
* Are the newspaper's phone numbers changing? No, you can still reach the main newsroom at 257-TRIB (8742), and reporters' and editors' phone numbers also will be the same.
* How about the fax number? The same - 257-8525
* Web site? No change - http://www.sltrib.com
* How do I get to The Tribune's new offices? We are on the sixth and seventh floors of the One Gateway Office Center, across the street from the IMAX theater.
* Are the Newspaper Agency Corp.'s offices at 143 S. Main St. also moving? The NAC is moving, but not until next year, when they'll be moving to West Valley City. Until then, you can continue buying advertising or placing obituaries at 143 S. Main St., or call the classified department (237-2000), display advertising (237-2815), or obituaries (237-2990) for assistance.
