Dew said the combined music division should be strong because each of the two music divisions has been "very good at certain kinds of music and certain kinds of music promotion . . . but there's not really a lot of overlap. There's only a little bit of overlap and a lot of unique talent on both sides."

As for the film division, "Internally, we won't see it changing a lot except we can now bring to bear the distribution we have that we think can enhance the distribution they have had in the past."

Simpson and Dew had been talking for a couple of years about ways to "benefit the whole industry," Simpson said, adding that the transaction's final form was discussed the past six months or so. Plus, they said, such strategic relationships are common among media companies.

"It's been sort of an evolution of talks we were having about how do we do what we do better," he said. "Then it seemed to be a lot of adding of elements that, if we put them together, they would be stronger."

In the music arena, Simpson said Deseret Book has a "bigger marketing machine," including its stores' distribution channel, whereas Excel's has been more "grass-roots-oriented, a lot more PR-oriented and promotions-oriented."

"We will take those strengths and put them together," he said. The record labels, he said, "we've come to think now that they may be complementary rather than competitive."

Ultimately, the audience will be the winners as the combined company does a better job of "finding, creating and developing better cultural relevant media that is faith-based and values-based and doing a better job at delivering that to the audience," he said.

He added, "They may not see anything tomorrow change, or the next day change, but hopefully they'll see an evolution in the entire marketplace and see better media and stronger media that really is aligned with their values, that is faith-based and works for them."

Neither Simpson nor Dew expect the transaction to affect content of future films. Deseret Book has sold every Excel product so far.

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E-mail: bwallace@desnews.com