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Mark H. Willes, the former publisher of The Los Angeles Times who came out of retirement three years ago to lead the company that manages many of the LDS Church's for-profit businesses, has stepped down.
Willes' retirement from the top job at Deseret Management Corp. was announced Thursday.
He was replaced by Keith McMullin, who was released with praise from his position as second counselor in the Presiding Bishopric of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints during the church's 182nd Annual General Conference Saturday.
"It came as a complete surprise to me," McMullin said in an interview with The Salt Lake Tribune.
Willes, who ran The Times and its parent company, Times Mirror, in the 1990s, could not be reached for comment.
Willes was called in 2009 at the age of 67 by the First Presidency of the church to be president and CEO of Deseret Management. He oversaw the transformation of the company and its businesses, which include the Deseret News and KSL television and radio, to be more competitive as consumers turned increasingly to digital devices for news and information.
As a member of Deseret Management's board of directors for 15 years, McMullin said he was involved in shaping the company's business strategies, which he intends to pursue without making alterations.
"From my vantage point, what I see ahead is building on the foundation that has been laid. We do not anticipate changing those strategies, but rather pursuing them. We are at the beginning in some instances of these strategic initiatives and look forward to them expanding as envisioned when they were first presented to the board," he said.
McMullin acknowledged that the News and KSL have undergone "wrenching" restructurings, some of which predated Willes. In 2008, the News eliminated 34 staff positions and closed its bureau in Washington, D.C., as it struggled to cope with a steep drop in advertising revenue. Another round of layoffs in 2010, this time under Willes' tenure, cut the paper's remaining staff almost in half.
At the same time, the paper shifted from traditional news to "values-oriented" journalism. Lost staffers were offset by often-untrained contributors, which raised eyebrows in the journalism industry and led to a scandal involving West Valley City Mayor Mike Winder, who wrote news articles under a fictitious name.
The news-gathering operations of the News and KSL were combined into a single newsroom, blurring long-time distinctions between print and television journalists.
"But our people are responding well," McMullin, 70, said. "They are, as I can see, pleased with the strategic direction we are moving toward."
Despite falling to second place in viewer ratings, "KSL [TV] has been a dominant force here in the market for a long period of time, and we envision that being the same in the future, and changing and innovating as the circumstances require. I would say the same for the Deseret News," he said.
McMullin said the combined newsroom appears to be working well and has been accepted by staffers.
"I feel we have some talented people here ... who are looking toward the future with optimism," he said.
In McMullin's role as a counselor of the Presiding Bishopric, he was heavily involved alongside former Bishop H. David Burton in the development of the City Creek multiuse project in downtown Salt Lake City.
Prior to his call to the Presiding Bishopric, he served 20 years with the church's Welfare Services Department, including 10 years as managing director. He earlier had been with Ford Motor Co. as an investment and financial analyst and had managed several small businesses.
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