KSL radio, TV get own division

Looking to better leverage its media companies with an eye to an already impressive Internet presence and financial opportunities, Deseret Management Corp. is creating two new operating divisions — one through addition, the second through subtraction.

The latter is the simplest to explain, said DMC president and chief executive officer Mark Willes: The flagship stations of KSL-TV and KSL Radio are being split from current parent Bonneville International and will make up the new KSL Broadcasting.

Besides allowing Bonneville to focus on its 28 affiliate radio stations nationally and its broadcast distribution and public-service-announcement services, the new division allows the two KSLs to have a separate standing, individual focus and a position to better integrate into DMC's second new division.

The second — Deseret Digital Media — is a new company created to manage the Web sites and business operations for DMC's Deseret News, Deseret Book and new KSL Broadcasting subsidiaries. Deseret Management Corp. is an operating company that operates the for-profit holdings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The companies' Web sites will remain separate, but combining them under one umbrella will allow the new division to streamline operations and increase revenue by selling bulk online advertising.

"Strategy ought to determine structure, which then determines performance," said Willes of Thursday's moves.

Willes said the combination of technical and business Web operations is expected to increase total online revenues two- to fivefold as DMC patterns itself after other online media company successes.

Staffs at the two KSL stations, the Deseret News and Deseret Book should see little change other than the upcoming consolidation of Internet operations and personnel and the likelihood of additional hiring at the new Deseret Digital Media. Viewers, listeners and readers of the companies will see little change.

However, besides anticipating increased online revenues, a future benefit will be cooperative efforts across DMC's media platforms — audio, visual and print — that can benefit not only DMC's Salt Lake City and Utah markets but can continue to grow nationally and internationally, as well.

"We will find ways to leverage across platforms in ways that we've never done before or in ways that we haven't done easily before," Willes said.

Clark Gilbert, Deseret Digital Media's new president and CEO, is currently an associate academic vice president at BYU-Idaho who previously was at Harvard Business School, specializing in innovations in digital news media.