Salt Lake Tribune chair Paul Huntsman founds California newspaper

The chair of the nonprofit Salt Lake Tribune’s board of directors has founded a new website and weekly newspaper in Southern California.

Paul Huntsman is the owner of The Coronado News, a startup in the small city of about 20,000, located on an island just south of San Diego.

In an editorial published last week on thecoronadonews.com, Huntsman wrote that after he bought a home in Coronado last year, he took note of beach closure signs in the area. The closures were the result of “sewage creep,” he wrote, but he noticed there was “very little” reported about it.

“The pristine beaches of Coronado are among the most beautiful on the planet,” he wrote, “and I yearned to know more about the causes and effects, and potential remedies for this wide-ranging environmental and health problem on the island. … With the backdrop of beach closures and sewage spill on our beaches in Coronado, why not bring a team together to address this?”

The Coronado News launched online in late January, and its first, free weekly print edition was mailed to residents last month.

In his editorial, Huntsman — who serves as chair of both The Salt Lake Tribune’s board of directors and editorial board — told readers that he purchased the Tribune in 2016 “to bring the paper back into local hands, and find a sustainable pathway forward for local journalism.”

“After four long frustrating years, I made the decision to convert The Salt Lake Tribune into the nation’s first legacy daily nonprofit newspaper,” he wrote. Two years after that, he wrote, “massive losses transitioned to cash surplus.”

The Coronado News is not a nonprofit.

The California city is already home to two other newspapers — the weekly Coronado Eagle & Journal (coronadonewsca.com) and the online coronadotimes.com. But, Huntsman wrote, he hopes his new newspaper “raises the level of competition, which benefits the entire community.”

“A great community deserves a great newspaper,” he wrote. “We’re here to stay, and look forward to building this for the betterment of our community.”