|
Summarized by Kent Larsen
Denver Post Manager will be Publisher of Deseret News
Salt Lake Tribune 13Jul00 B2
By Guy Boulton: Salt Lake Tribune
SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH -- The Deseret News appointed Jim M. Wall, currently
executive vice president and general manager of the Denver Post, as
Publisher of the LDS Church-owned paper. Wall will replace the retiring Wm.
James Mortimer, publisher of the Deseret News since 1985.
Wall, who will take over the Publisher responsibilities in September, is a
BYU graduate and long-time newspaper veteran, working at the Everett,
Washington Herald, the Mesa, Arizona Tribune, the Las Cruces, New Mexico
Sun-News and the former Dallas Times Herald before joining MediaNews, Inc.,
a media conglomerate which put Wall in charge of its New England Newspapers
Inc., subsidiary, which includes a group of newspapers in Vermont and
Massachusetts.
MediaNews then asked Wall to work at the Denver Post in early 1999,
overseeing the newspaper's advertising, research, marketing and new media
services at various times. His experience came as the Post was fighting one
of the fiercest newspaper battles in the US against the rival Rocky Mountain
News. The battle ended in May when the two papers signed a joint-operating
agreement in which the Post will be the dominant partner.
Part of the attraction of Wall to the Deseret News is his experience in Las
Cruces in which as publisher of the Sun-News he moved the newspaper from
afternoon delivery to morning delivery. The Deseret News announced its
intention to move to a morning newspaper several years ago, but has yet to
make the switch. Throughout the US, afternoon papers have generally lost
circulation to morning newspapers over the past 20 years. However, the
Deseret News has bucked the trend in recent years, gaining circulation. It
still has less than half the circulation of the Salt Lake Tribune, with whom
it has a joint-operating agreement.
|
