Sally Francom: Lehi Free Press History | Roots & Branches

Sally Francom shares her mother's legacy as Lehi Free Press editor, reviving the paper in 2016, and why local journalism matters for Lehi, Utah's growing community.

Sally Francom: Lehi Free Press History | Roots & Branches

Sally Francom shares her mother's legacy as Lehi Free Press editor, reviving the paper in 2016, and why local journalism matters for Lehi, Utah's growing community.

Sally Francom on the Lehi Free Press, Family Legacy, and Keeping Local Journalism Alive

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Who Is Sally Fowler Francom, and Why Does Her Story Matter?

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Episode Overview

Guest Name

Role in Lehi

Time Periods Discussed

Host

Primary Topics Discussed

Resource for Listeners

Episode Highlights

Key Stories from the Interview

Growing Up in the Newsroom

Lehi's Original Google

The Obituary Run

The Paper Goes Dark

A Sister's Encouragement and a Risky Revival

Like Starting a Dairy

Asking About Homelessness Before Anyone Knew It Was Here

The Ted Bundy Sighting

A Blind Mother and the Paper She Can't See

Historical Insights About Lehi

Community and Legacy Themes

Memorable Quotes

Related Lehi Topics

Photo Opportunities for Historical Archive

Full Transcript

Chapter 1: Welcome to Roots and Branches of Lehi
Chapter 2: Meet Sally Fowler Francom
Chapter 3: Growing Up in Lehi
Chapter 4: The Legacy of the Lehi Free Press
Chapter 5: Reviving the Newspaper After Closure
Chapter 6: Challenges & Evolution of Local Journalism
Chapter 7: Community Impact & Reflections
Chapter 8: A Ted Bundy Sighting in Lehi
Chapter 9: Life of a Newspaper Editor
Chapter 10: Challenges of Modern Journalism
Chapter 11: The Role of AI in News
Chapter 12: The Future of the Lehi Free Press
Chapter 13: Why Local Journalism Still Matters
Chapter 14: Closing Thoughts & Acknowledgements

Sally Francom Lehi Free Press Interview - Roots & Branches of Lehi Podcast

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A conversation with the publisher reviving Lehi's historic newspaper about her mother who wrote the entire paper alone, riding her bike to pick up obituaries, and why nobody's getting rich telling the truth.

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Sally Fowler Francom's story is woven directly into the fabric of Lehi, Utah . Growing up just five blocks from Main Street, she spent her childhood in the heart of a small farming town where everyone knew everyone—and where her mother, Betty Fowler, served as the longtime editor of the Lehi Free Press . Sally's memories of riding her bike to Wing Mortuary to pick up obituaries, doing homework in the newspaper office, and being raised by a neighborhood that looked out for one another paint a vivid picture of Lehi's close-knit past.

In this episode of Roots & Branches of Lehi , host Ryan Harding sits down with Sally to explore how her mother's legacy inspired her own unexpected journey into reviving the Lehi Free Press after it shut down in 2007. Her story highlights the importance of local journalism , the evolution of Lehi from a farming community of roughly 4,000 people to a booming tech hub, and the challenges of keeping a community informed in a rapidly changing world. Through her stewardship of Lehi's only news source, Sally offers a rare insider perspective on the city's growth, its people, and the value of preserving local stories.

For anyone interested in Lehi, Utah history , local journalism , Main Street businesses , community storytelling , or the families that shaped Lehi's institutions, this interview is essential listening. Sally's perspective bridges the Lehi of the 1970s—when her mother was the town's "original Google"—and the Lehi of today, where she fights to keep a weekly newspaper alive as both a print publication and a digital news source. Her interview is a powerful reminder of how family legacy, community service, and a deep love for one's hometown can shape not only a career but an entire community's historical memory.

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Sally Fowler Francom

Publisher of the Lehi Free Press; owner of Copper Light Communications

1970s–2020s

Ryan Harding

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Sally describes growing up on Center Street, just five blocks from Main Street, and spending afternoons in her mother's newsroom. While Betty Fowler wrote the entire weekly Lehi Free Press by herself, Sally would do her homework at the office. Her mother started in 1970 by filling in for a woman who got sick—and stayed for 23 years. The office was located right on Main Street, in the heart of Lehi's business district, making the newspaper a central hub of community life.

Sally shares that her mother was "sort of like Lehi's original Google." People would come to their house asking where the police station was, where the cemetery was, where the gas station was. In a town of roughly 4,000 to 5,000 people where everybody knew everybody, Betty Fowler was at the center of everything—writing stories from the police blotter to obituaries to city hall coverage. She eventually stopped using bylines because she wrote the entire paper herself and found it redundant to put her name on every story.

One of Sally's most vivid childhood memories was being sent on her bike to Wing Mortuary to pick up obituaries from Ralph Wing. It was the job she hated most because she was terrified she might see a dead body. She would ride her bike across town, pick up the obituary, take it back to her mother's office, and Betty would type it up and get the photo. It's a small-town detail that captures how intimately connected the newspaper was to the rhythms of community life.

The Lehi Free Press had been published continuously since the late 1800s, surviving the era when Lehi had two competing newspapers—the Lehi Sun and the Lehi Free Press . But after the Provo Daily Herald acquired it along with the American Fork Citizen and Pleasant Grove Review , the 2007 market crash led the Herald to abandon all three weeklies. From 2007 to 2015, Lehi had no newspaper at all.

After moving back to Utah in 2013 following a divorce, Sally's sister Donna Barnes—another longtime Lehi resident—convinced her to restart the paper. Sally did the legal work to acquire the name, DBA, and federal trademark, then launched the new Lehi Free Press in 2016. She looks back now and laughs: "Anybody who starts a weekly in 2016... what was I thinking?" In the digital age, reviving a print weekly seemed almost absurd, but she believed local news was too important to let disappear.

Sally explains that running the paper is like running a dairy: "How do you stop the dairy? The cows need to be milked." She's been begged by staff to go biweekly, but because they publish legal notices and public notices on a strict timeline, they have to be weekly. That relentless Tuesday deadline means the paper never stops—and neither does she. She's now in the 10th year of publication and approaching the 11th.

During a mayoral debate Sally hosted at Traverse Mountain around 2018, she asked the candidates how they were proactively dealing with homelessness. The audience was stunned—many didn't realize Lehi had homeless residents at all. Sally, who worked in Salt Lake and saw the problem there, felt it was a relevant question. At the time, Lehi didn't have a visible homelessness issue, but she saw what was coming. Today, she notes, the city does.

In one of the paper's most viral stories, Sally's sister wrote about their father being convinced he saw Ted Bundy's Volkswagen parked at Wines's Park. The story was framed as opinion and folklore—"my dad thinks he saw Ted Bundy"—but when they posted it online with a photo of Bundy, it went viral. Readers were shocked: "Ted Bundy came to Lehi?" Sally acknowledges it may be folklore, but the story demonstrates how local history and family memory become part of the community narrative.

Sally shares a touching moment from the office: a woman came in because the post office hadn't delivered her paper that week. She explained, "I take it home and my mom's blind now, but I read the whole thing to her." It's moments like these that keep Sally committed to the print edition, even as she knows the future is digital. The paper serves a senior community that relies on the physical weekly in ways that online news can't replicate.

Sally's interview offers rare perspective on Lehi's transformation from a tight-knit farming town to one of Utah's fastest-growing cities. Here are key historical insights from her firsthand experience:

Throughout the interview, several broader themes emerge that reflect the values and challenges facing Lehi as it grows while trying to maintain its character:

This episode connects to the broader Roots & Branches of Lehi archive. Explore these related topics to deepen your understanding of Lehi's history and community:

To enhance this community profile, consider adding these visual elements to the historical record:

Ryan Harding: Welcome to Roots and Branches of Lehi, the podcast where we get to know the faces, stories, and lives that make up our community. I'm Ryan Harding, and I started this podcast as a way for us all to connect with the people we live alongside. Growing up in a small town, I learned that connections go beyond blood. They're built through shared experiences, friendships, and the moments we celebrate together. Each week, we'll sit down with someone new from Lehi to share their unique story, their passions, and what they love most about living here. So whether you've been here for years or just arrived, join us as we deepen our roots and reach out to our branches one story at a time.

Ryan Harding: Welcome Sally Fowler Francom to the podcast Roots and Branches of Lehi. Excited to have you here.

Sally Francom: Thanks Ryan.

Ryan: You were just telling me a little bit, so let's kind of dive into this. Originally you are from Lehi then?

Sally: Yes. I grew up five blocks from here on 517 North Center Street. Super close. And I lived here until I was 17. I left to go to BYU. At that point, but I grew up right here basically on Main Street.

Sally: My mother, Betty Fowler, was the editor of the Lehi Free Press all through my growing up years. She started by filling in for a woman who got sick and never left. That was in 1970. My mother was the editor of the Lehi Free Press. It was a weekly at that time. She did that for 23 years. That was all part of my growing up experience. Her office was literally just west of your office here, right here on Main Street.

As a kid, I would come over here after school and hang out with my mom and do my homework at her office. It was great.

Ryan: Was that her background? Had she had any journalism background?

Sally: She was a cultured lady. She was a writer. She had a gift—which I don't have. She was sort of like Lehi's original Google. People would come to our house when I was growing up and ask questions like, "Where's the police station? Where's the cemetery? Where's the gas station?" She was sort of in the middle of everything. Back in those days, Lehi was a town of about four or five thousand people. Everybody pretty much knew everybody, and mom was writing stories from the police blotter to helping with obituaries to covering city hall to doing all of it. She basically wrote the entire paper herself.

Ryan: You got quite the legacy there. Her story is quite unique. It's a family legacy.

Sally: The Lehi Free Press is a historic name in Lehi. It goes back to the 1800s. There were two competing newspapers at the time. One was called the Lehi Sun and one was called the Lehi Free Press. Eventually they joined together, and the Lehi Free Press was published consistently all through the late 1800s, all through the 1900s. Up until 2007, it had gone through some ownership changes. The most recent one was it was acquired by the Provo Daily Herald. They acquired two other papers, the American Fork Citizen and the Pleasant Grove Review. When the market crashed in 2007, they abandoned those weeklies. There was basically no newspaper in Lehi from 2007 to 2015. I did the legal work to acquire the name and the DBA and the federal trademark. I moved back to Utah in 2013.

Sally: I had raised my family in the Bay Area after I went to BYU. I ended up divorced, moved back to Utah, and my sister Donna Barnes, who's a longtime Lehi person, convinced me to restart the paper. Anybody who starts a weekly in 2016—I honestly look back at that and go, "What was I thinking?"

Ryan: In the digital age and different things like that.

Sally: But we have a very robust online presence. Lehifreepress.com gets a lot of views. We believe local news is super important. We focus on sports and kids and youth and city hall and local politics and elections. We have a group of independent contractors called stringers—photographers, journalists. We have about 20 who all contribute to Lehi Free Press in any given week. It's actually kind of a robust little company, but not extremely profitable. I run a separate company called Copper Light Communications, which is a marketing firm that actually earns me a living. Lehi Free Press is essentially a gift to the community. We've been doing it now for nine years, almost 10 years. Next year in April will be our official—we will have published going into our 11th year. We're in our 10th year of publication.

Ryan: Is Copper Light affiliated with Lehi Free Press in any way?

Sally: Totally separate company. It's a sister company in the sense that we sometimes share clients. I never thought this would happen. My degree is from BYU in media sales management, journalism and broadcasting. I spent my younger years in television sales and management. Then I moved my family to California, raised them there, and I was in web publishing at that time. I had the skills to do it, but starting it was very scary. It kept me up at night. We joke in the family that it was like starting a dairy. How do you stop the dairy? The cows need to be milked. Once you're in it, you're in it.

I've been begged by certain employees—can we just do a biweekly? Can we go to every two weeks? But we publish legal notices and public notices, and those are on a very strict editorial timeline. We can't. We have to be weekly. It creates more credibility and trust with the community when they know you're going to be published every single week.

These are mailed out by subscription. For Lehi residents, it's $70 a year, which frankly we lose money with every subscription because of increasing printing costs and mailing costs. The US Postal Service gave us a 9% increase in July. It's a never-ending story. We also distribute throughout Lehi, so anybody in Lehi may receive the Lehi Free Press in their mailbox intermittently, usually every 3 months, because we like people to sample it. We don't apologize for the fact that the paper side serves the senior community. We love the senior community in Lehi and we serve them.

Ryan: How has Lehi Free Press evolved from 2016 till now?

Sally: We've always had a robust online presence, and it has just grown. People typically don't understand how hard something is when you start a business. The news business is hard because everything has to be 100% accurate all the time. Accuracy, truthfulness, honesty—that's all you have as far as your reputation. When people accuse us of publishing fake news and they troll us online, sometimes I've gotten to the point where I've got a pretty thick skin, but at the beginning it really irritated me when people would question our ethics. Nobody's getting rich. Nobody's getting kickbacks from politicians. It's just not what's happening in Lehi, Utah.

Ryan: I've interviewed several public servants, and one thing I take from it is none of these guys are getting rich. They just want to serve.

Sally: That's what we're doing. We're doing this as a public service.

Ryan: How do you feel about being the steward? There's only one newspaper in Lehi, and it's you.

Sally: Lehi is lucky to have us, I'll be honest. Most cities don't have a newspaper. Not only do they not have a newspaper, they don't have a news entity. I sort of don't like it when we're called a newspaper, because we're more of a news source. We have our online presence. The newspaper is sort of the relentless dog chasing you because you have a deadline every Tuesday. But we publish every day. We're more of a news source than we are just a newspaper.

I grew up in the best place ever. Everybody knew everybody. I have nine siblings and I'm a twin. My twin sister and I are the youngest of 10 children. We like to joke that the neighborhood raised us. The neighbor ladies would say, "Hey you two twins, you go home now." It was a great place to grow up. It was a farming community. My dad was a dry farmer. My mother was the editor of the local paper. It was a wonderful place to be. I do love my hometown. I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't.

But I've also seen it grow, and it has its growing pains. Especially with LDS families—they like to marry and have kids, and where are their kids going to live? And then people moving in because of the tech boom. We love what we do. We have dedicated writers and contributors and other staff. Nobody's getting paid what they deserve, but everybody's doing it because they like contributing to the community.

Ryan: What role do you think the newspaper has in helping make this community stronger?

Sally: We try to be the truth tellers. We're also trying to tell a lot of the positive stories that are happening. We try to share what's good and maybe not so good about the community. That's what a good news entity does. We don't have the financial underpinnings that KSL or the Daily Herald have, but we have a desire, and we have many people who are journalists writing stories. It's tough, especially politics. Government is tough because half the people are going to hate any public official. We put out so much good work, so when we get criticized for doing what we do—considering we're doing it as a public service—that's a bummer. But that comes with the business.

Ryan: How do you pick and choose what gets printed?

Sally: We have an editorial meeting every single week. I am ultimately the one who chooses the stories that will be published online. Not all our content is published online—some of it's not appropriate for digital, like really senior-focused stuff. If you really want everything we have, you have to get the subscription. We also have an email newsletter for $3.99 a month. Anybody can get our weekly email and basically a compilation of the biggest stories of the week.

There are stories that we miss. The only reason we typically miss big stories is because we don't have the ability to be someplace at 3:00 in the morning when the cops get there. We don't have the legs that bigger news organizations have in terms of large staff.

Ryan: Do you try to stay neutral?

Sally: We 100% try to stay neutral. That is reflected from me down through the organization. I try to consume news from the left and from the right and stay right in the middle. We've been accused of not being that, but in Lehi we really don't talk about Trump or national politics. What affects us is a new road on 21st North. What affects us is parking at the high school. What affects us are local politicians making development decisions about housing and retail. Local education and local politics affect people, so we try to cover that vigorously and be completely neutral—just the facts. No one has an agenda.

We try to hold the government accountable, because if nobody's watching what's happening in city council, how does everybody know what happened? Most people aren't tuning in to those meetings. We try to report as vigorously as we can on local government.

Ryan: Anything fascinating you've learned being the daughter of somebody in the newspaper business?

Sally: I look back on what my mom did writing the entire paper. She got to the point where she got tired of using a byline, so she just stopped putting a byline on all her stories because she wrote the whole thing. Anything you read from 1970 to 1993 that doesn't have a byline—Betty Fowler wrote it. What would surprise people is how prolific she was, how accurate she was, and how funny she was. I stand in awe of my mother. We literally have up to 20 contributors in any given issue, and she did the whole thing herself, including the layout. I see why she would come home exhausted on Tuesdays.

Sally Francom: Lehi Free Press History | Roots & Branches