The Salt Lake Tribune

Lauren Gustus is CEO and executive editor of The Salt Lake Tribune. The Tribune was the first major metro news organization to become a nonprofit in 2019. It achieved sustainability in 2021 under Lauren’s leadership. Lauren co-founded the Great Salt Lake Collaborative, a group of 17 organizations focused on elevating solutions to the lake’s challenges that has spurred hundreds of millions in legislative support to date. Under her leadership, The Tribune also started sharing its daily reporting through the Utah News Collaborative. Additionally, The Moab Times-Independent donated itself to The Tribune, becoming part of a growing nonprofit network. Lauren previously worked for McClatchy as West Region Editor, overseeing 10 news organizations in Idaho, Washington and California, including the flagship Sacramento Bee. She has also served as an editor in Colorado, Texas and Nevada. She is a coach in the Media Transformation Challenge at The Poynter Institute, supporting news leaders worldwide as they seek performance-driven change.

Ciel Hunter oversees philanthropy and advertising for The Salt Lake Tribune, helping to build a business model to ensure the organization’s future sustainability. She originally joined The Tribune as a member of the Board of Directors. Previously, she worked at VICE Media for 14 years, where she served as both executive creative director and global head of content. She managed major commercial partnerships, handled talent relations, and oversaw creative, curation and production for initiatives bridging experiential and media including the global arts platform The Creators Project. She has also worked as an independent consultant on content and brand strategy, operations and revenue for clients ranging from start-ups and nonprofits to multinational corporations.

Danyelle White is the chief of content at The Salt Lake Tribune. In this position, she leads the organization’s product, marketing and audience teams, as well as its community listening, opinion section and data analytics initiatives. She is passionate about the role nonprofit news can play in serving local communities and elevating diverse and underserved voices. White began her career at The Tribune in 2007 and worked as a communities reporter, copy editor and assistant sports editor in her five years there before spending nearly a decade leading content marketing teams in the tech industry. Her superpower is building and managing high-performing, outcome-driven teams. After returning to journalism in April 2021, she led several of The Tribune’s efforts in the Major Market Table Stakes program. She was an executive fellow in Poynter’s Media Transformation Challenge program in 2022 and has coached other media executives in the program since 2023.