(Leah Hogsten | The Salt Lake Tribune) The City Weekly owner and publisher John Saltas stands in an empty newsroom, April 1, 2020. Most of Saltas' 12 staffers are working remotely from home amid the coronavirus social distancing protocols. Saltas instituted furloughs on his staff March 27, and estimates the editorial staff is about half of what it was at its peak. The COVID-19 pandemic is wreaking havoc on many small news-gathering organizations, such as alt-weeklies and free community newspapers.
Eric is a West Valley City native and a graduate of Granger High School and the University of Utah who joined The Tribune in 2003. He hoards rescue cats and guinea pigs, reads historical fiction, watches British baking shows, and obsesses over 1980s hair-metal bands in his spare time.