R. Gail Stahle, the former publisher of The Davis Clipper, died March 30 at the age of 88.
Stahle’s grandfather, John Stahle Sr., co-founded the Bountiful paper in 1891 with a local business owner, according to a study from Brigham Young University. Three generations of the Stahle family continued the newspaper’s operations over its 129-year history.
The paper stopped publication in December 2020. At the time, Stahle told The Salt Lake Tribune that revenues from advertising and subscriptions had declined in recent years, and the coronavirus pandemic made the paper’s operation “no longer viable.”
“My family has loved publishing the Clipper since 1891,” Stahle told The Tribune in 2020. “Each generation has cherished the opportunity and understood the value of a community newspaper.”
Tom Haraldsen, who served as managing editor of the Clipper in 2020, wrote in a column for the Davis Journal that Stahle was dedicated to the newspaper business — and that he “never shied away from expanding and maintaining the value of local newspapers.”
“He made many sacrifices to keep the Clipper alive – more than most of us know,” Haraldsen wrote. “He sold his beloved home and eventually liquidated parts of that amazing press to keep the Clipper going as print journalism began to lose steam and sales revenues declined... And while most of the public never fully appreciated his efforts and dedication to the craft, his peers did.”
In 2020, Stahle received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Utah Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. Stahle was the original publisher of the Spectrum in St. George, and published other newspapers in communiies across Utah and Arizona, according to the Davis Clipper.
“We will all reflect on how Gail touched our lives, and how his work as a publisher kept us informed,” Haraldsen wrote. “And hopefully, we’ll realize how grateful we should be for the dedication to journalism that largely defined Gail Stahle.”
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