The Deseret News is a newspaper for the future

Despite the fact that Deseret News print readership grew by 20 percent in 2009 — the highest growth rate of any newspaper in the country — the new realities of the print business model have forced changes in the paper.

But unlike many other newspapers around the country, the Deseret News has done more than just reduce costs.

While these changes present challenges, they also open opportunities for reinvention, said Clark Gilbert, Deseret News President and CEO. The leaders at the Deseret News plan to take advantage of these opportunities, ensuring a bright future for the newspaper and its readers.

"Changes in the industry have forced some newspapers to fade or even close," said Gilbert. "At the Deseret News, we choose to lead and innovate."

Traditional newspaper revenues have steadily declined during the last 60 years, moving from nearly 40 percent of the advertising market in 1950 to around 15 percent two years ago, according to Gordon Borrell, a local media expert.

Since 1996, Internet growth has cut into the market share and profits of newspapers, said Borrell.

Leading innovation scholars have also weighed in on these changes. Clayton Christensen, a professor of business administration at Harvard Business School, explains that the reality is simple: Print journalism is a classic case of an industry facing a disruptive innovation. "What people don't understand about disruption is that even as it attacks old models, it creates new growth," Christensen said. "Hundreds of thousands of readers now access the Deseret News through the Internet."

He said it was just five years ago that he worked with Gilbert at the Harvard Business School on Newspaper Next, a multimonth study for the entire newspaper industry.

The pair studied some 250 American daily newspapers and found that, in an effort to defend the print business, newspapers, in general, had failed to realize that a new Internet business was growing around them. The study found that newspapers were missing out on nearly $300 million in annual profits by failing to use the Internet to serve new advertisers.

"Working with the American Press Institute, nearly every major news organization in the country participated with us," said Christensen of the study. "Some of them listened, and some of them didn't. The Deseret News team understands this and has built a strategy to embrace that growth."

This strategy includes a five-part plan "to become a leader in the industry and a model for change," said Gilbert.

As part of the plan, the Deseret News will integrate its newsroom with KSL to create the market's largest news coverage team. The Deseret News has also organized a new editorial advisory board that will provide breadth and depth in opinion to the publication.