After 136 years of delivering weekly headlines to Wasatch County readers, the Wasatch Wave could be printing its final edition on Tuesday, July 8.
Laurie Buys-Wynn, the Wave’s co-publisher and managing editor, is retiring after 50 years in the newsroom. And the Buys family, which founded the paper in 1889, sold the Wave building to Heber City July 1.
The family is in talks with potential buyers who might acquire the news operations, but for now, the Wave is scheduled to stop printing next week: it’s literally out of paper.
For Buys-Wynn, it’s a bittersweet moment. She grew up in the newsroom and has made it her life’s work for 50 years, from typesetting as a child to installing a color printing press and chasing the Heber Valley’s stories.
“I can honestly say that I have worked in every facet of the newspaper,” she said. “I’ve sold ads, I’ve done the accounting. I have done the photography, back when we were running a darkroom and we would process our own film. I have physically typed on a linotype. It’s been a really amazing career.”
Buys-Wynn said her earliest newsroom memory is sitting with her grandfather at his typewriter. He would let her help type his column for the Richfield Reaper, a newspaper in south central Utah.
From the age of seven, Buys-Wynn was immersed in the Wave, pasting graphics, dragging lead bars that would be melted down into lines of type, and watching everything that went on.
“Being able to grow up in the hustle and bustle of gathering the news, and the adrenaline rush and meeting deadlines – that was just life,” she said. “That was an exciting life for a seven-year-old.”
As Buys-Wynn grew up, so did the paper. She took the helm in 1997, and a few years later, the Wave installed a seven-unit printing press, enabling it to publish the newspaper in color for the first time.
The printing press, one of just a few left in Utah, is enormous. Each roll of newsprint contains two and a half miles of paper. The paper spins through seven massive machines, which weigh a total of 50 tons and are installed in three feet of concrete.
The printing press has its own building, which sits directly between City Hall and City Park.
That’s where Heber City comes in. As the city tries to make downtown more pedestrian-friendly, it’s focusing on the blocks from Center Street to 200 South.
The Buys family and Heber leaders have been in talks for a year about the future of the Wave Publishing buildings, and on July 1, the city council voted to purchase the property for just under $2.2 million.
At that meeting, city manager Matt Brower said the purchase is “strategic.”
“Will this lot become parking? We don’t know,” he said. “What we know is that time is going to help define exactly what happens here.”
He said the property could be redeveloped into mixed-use spaces or housing, and he added that acquiring the press building is essential to creating a walking path parallel to Main Street.
Buys-Wynn said she expects the printing press will be scrapped.
For the next year, the Wave will remain as a tenant in the office, with the option to rent month-to-month after that. Copy and printing services will continue.
After the Wave leaves the building, Buys-Wynn said the city might use the space for offices or storage.
“We wish them the best of luck in figuring out what’s going to best serve the residents of Wasatch County,” she said.
Buys-Wynn said as the Wave stops its presses, the staff will work with the Summit and Wasatch county libraries to archive decades’ worth of history, currently stored in huge bound volumes in the press building.
She said she remains optimistic the Wave will continue, perhaps in digital form.
“We do have a couple of publications on the Wasatch Front, as well as some interest from some people here in the valley that have reached out,” she said. “We would love to see the newspaper continue. It’s still got a lot of life.”
The family has also reached out to the Park Record as a potential buyer.
Buys-Wynn said she and her family want to pass the torch to someone with a deep love for the Heber Valley’s history and a desire to serve the community as it changes.
“It’s been such an honor,” she said, getting choked up. “It’s been bittersweet, but it’s an honor to serve them.”
After decades in the newsroom, Buys-Wynn said it’s time for her to travel with her father to all the places he’s dreamed of visiting.
Heber Valley locals can pick up the Wasatch Wave’s final print edition at newsstands July 9.
