As the 757 banked into the mountains of Utah last week, The Great Salt Lake casts a dull reflection. It’s not one of those ‘eyes of the world’ Thoreau mentioned in Walden, but rather one of those old eyes..clouded by a millions of years of solitude.
Ted Como even called my attention to the fact that whales once swam where we were standing just outside of Ogden, Utah. We flew there last week to visit one of the Sandusky newspapers – The Standard Examiner and explore some of their new ideas they are implementing at this innovative multi-media company. Ted is a part-time paleontologist and we talk about fossils a lot, but he also knew the age of this lake. The Great Salt Lake is the largest lake in the Western hemishpere and is an endoheric lake, meaning there are no outlet other than evaporation and the area around the landscape is one of the most intriguing in our nation. One of my friends recently commented that Utah is one of the best kept-tourism secrets in the American homeland and he may be right.
There are plenty of mountains in Utah and immediately from the airport you find yourself in a bowl of high jagged western mountain ranges that usually have snow. Ogden and Salt Lake were the home to the Olympics in 2002 and next year will host the X-Terra games as their snow and climbing terrains lend itself to extreme outdoor enthusiasts.
The Standard Examiner is 60,000 daily that serves the Ogden community and is situated in a new business park that was once served as a miltary warehousing area. The town is close to Hill Air Force Base and jets can be seen quite often banking into the Utah sky.
We arrived at the newspaper on Tuesday afternoon and toured their facility which which sports a 97,000 sq. ft mailroom, a commercial heat-set printing press and a personal enthusiasm that makes it easy to understand why these folks have a flair for innovation.
Lee Carter is the publisher of the Standard and is one of the best hosts I’ve ever met. He had planned a couple of days of intense conversations with our group and while talking in his office that first afternoon, I recognized a photo of a shiny, candy-apple red ’58 corvette on top of his file cabinet. He’s a collector and later that evening when he showed up to take us to dinner, I jumped at the opportunity to ride with him in the ’98 Vette that lead us to The Timberline.
The last time I visited Ogden, I especially enjoyed the Timberline. It’s old outpost decor with large beasts sticking their heads out of the walls in a darkened room is accented by several white, cat’s claw bathtubs filled with ‘Pez’ dispensers and topped with a piece of plexiglass for a avant-garde touch at this roadhouse restaurant at the base of Powder Mountain. As far as the food – The Timberline has some of the biggest steaks you’ll find in Utah. Ted Como and I both opted for the 24 ounce t-bone and although we enjoyed the meal, that 3.2 beer is a bit weak. The ‘Polygamy Porter‘ has a good taste and worth talking about, but I miss the Tennessee and North Carolina high-altitude beers.
We spent the day Wednesday meeting with the advertising, editorial, technology teams at Standard. Their editor, Andy Howell has embraced an aggressive video and multi-media approach to his newsroom. Several journalists are working on passionate interests that include climbing and biking and they often beat their competitors to news stories as their photographers and several journalists carry video cameras.
We also met with their circulation department and looked at new ideas which included a consignment store the newspaper runs to sell private party merchandise and watched the press run print one of their competitors newspapers – The City Express. They truly have an amazing operation in Ogden with plenty of technology and talent producing a lot of interesting products for that community.
It was a gorgeous day and for our lunch break, we loaded up in one of the Standard vans and headed into the mountains. It was a sunny day with snow on the ground and warm enough not to wear a coat. I was amused by the Magpies that fly around this city and was mesmerized by the the perfect clear blue azure sky as we ducked into the canyons beyond Ogden. Business manager Vaughn Jacobson drove a group that include our envoy from Tennessee, Amoire Pickett, their video champion, Andy Howell, Lee Carter and the Standard photographers to a perfect afternoon lunch at Needles atop Snow Basin, Utah – site of the 2002 Winter Olympics. This slope-side restaurant overlooks a gorgeous Utah horizon with spectacular views of many of the downhill ski slopes where competition was held during the last contests.
We had time for a few photos on the mountain which rose 10,000 feet and I had to shoot several photos to email my colleagues back in Kingsport (especially the skiers and snowboarders). There was two hours between us, but I enjoyed letting them check out photos via their phones as we topped the crest of that beautiful mountain and riding back down the sky lift to our cars.
I spent the rest of the afternoon with Cuba Tucker in their IT department and rewarding opportunity to talk about their wonderful organization in that department. There is a lot of talent in this group and Cuba share some interesting insight about their goals and plans for the future.
Later that afternoon, we shared a few moments with the entire Standard staff as they gathered to light the company Christmas Tree and it was great to see this organization celebrate together. Says alot for the management and the team.
We wrapped up the day with Lee, his wife Doris, Vaughn and Mark Shenefelt at the Ogden Country Club. Mark leads up their New Media Division and has some great ideas for the New Year. We talked a bit about Utah trivia too because I wasn’t sure what “StanBird” was on their newspaper masthead. To my surprise, the pelican is the state bird for Utah and was delighted to hear the Mormon myth that elevated this seabird (Stanbird) to state bird status in a Western state.
I was a bit disappointed we didn’t get to go to the Bonneville Salt Flats. I had dreamed about visiting this landscape since my first visit and the circumstances just didn’t pan out. Mark and Lee shared with me some things that I didn’t know and we also talked about the lake -which evidently has a smell and fortunately, we didn’t catch that, but the next time I visit Utah, I’d like to make my way to the Salt Flats for a moment on the bleached white horizon.
Our trip to Ogden was an in-and-out whirlwind. The Standard Staff was delightfully open and it feels good to be part of organization like these folks. They love their work and are creating some very interesting products and services for their readers and I can’t wait to see what they are up to next. You can check out their latest achievements by visiting their website and exploring their YouTube videos located here.
We made our way to Salt Lake City airport on Thursday morning and were in the air by 10.30 with a strong head wind that carried us quickly back across the country at 650mph. There was plenty of time to consider all that we saw and we have several new ideas about our future here in Kingsport.
Thank you Standard for your hospitality. You have certainly unleashed a visionary approach to all of your projects and I’m proud to be a part of the family that includes such an enthusiastic “Multi-Media Company” with a home base in Ogden. Until next time…