SALT LAKE CITY — The Intermountain Catholic’s move to a solely online publication is just the latest change to this newspaper as it has adapted to changing circumstances over the past 126 years.
Catholic news first came to the Utah area through the Colorado Catholic, which was published in Denver from 1884 to 1899. When that publication ceased, the Intermountain Catholic took over coverage of the Church in Utah, Colorado, Idaho, Wyoming, Nevada and Montana. The first issue was printed on Oct. 7, 1899. It continued to print weekly until 1920, when economics caused it to close. For three years there was no local news source, but then a diocesan periodical was put out monthly. 
The appearance of the Intermountain Catholic has changed since it was first published in 1899, but it has always reported news of the Church in the intermountain west. Diocese of Salt Lake City Archives photosThe Intermountain Catholic returned as a newspaper published by the diocese in 1926 and published regularly until 1937, when its name was changed to the Register, Intermountain Catholic Edition. In 1953 the publication became known as the Intermountain Catholic Register. The name reverted to the Intermountain Catholic in 1981, and it has continued under this designation ever since.
Regardless of its appellation, the IC, as it is known, has moved with the times. In the first decades much of the coverage was of national and international news of interest to Catholics. The paper continues to print such news, but in recent years it has emphasized local coverage because technology now allows readers access to other sources for worldwide news, while this publication is the only one that regularly reports on the Catholic Church in Utah.
For the first 83 years of its existence, the paper had priests as its editors, including two who would later become prelates – Bishop Duane G. Hunt and Archbishop Robert J. Dwyer. In 1982, a religious sister, Dominican Sister Lois Spear, became editor. She was followed by the first lay person, Catherine Faggella, in 1986, and members of the laity have served as editors ever since.
Another change began in November 1992, when the Intermountain Catholic began including news in Spanish on a regular basis. The Most Rev. William K. Weigand, seventh Bishop of Salt Lake City, announced the change in his “Feed My Lambs” column of Oct. 30, 1992.
Noting that the number of Catholics in Utah from Spanish-speaking countries was constantly growing, he wrote, “In this time of increased emphasis on evangelization, it has become evident to me as publisher, and to members of the staff of the Intermountain Catholic, that our diocesan newspaper is currently not able to reach all of our Catholic Utahns.”   
The Spanish section “will include a combination of news wrap-ups, translated local articles, national news, and updates from the Vatican,” Bishop Weigand wrote. “Some of our Utah Hispanic priests will also write a regular column in Spanish.”
In this way, he added, “[W]e hope to reach out to our growing Hispanic membership – to educate, to enrich, to share and to learn. We have so much to gain by being in touch with every segment of our Utah Catholic family.”
The IC began adapting to the online era in 2000, when its website went live. In 2011 it established pages on Facebook and Twitter (now X). As the publication moves from print to purely online, it will seek to use technology in new ways to continue its mission of carrying the news of the local Catholic Church to readers in Utah and beyond.