By Steve Fidel
Deseret News staff writer

      President Gordon B. Hinckley and his wife Marjorie were interviewed earlier in the year in Salt Lake City.
      Time magazine's decision to put a story about the LDS Church on its cover was an easy one.
      "Some stories are like that," said Sam Gwynne, Time's bureau chief in Austin, Texas, and a reporter for "Mormons Inc.," published August 4. "(The church) is growing with unbelievable speed. This is the most successful church in America — it almost merits a cover story right there."
      But there were additional incentives for the magazine to write about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
      The church was receiving international media attention for its celebration of the sesquicentennial of the Mormon pioneers' 1847 trek to the Salt Lake Valley. Reporters from as far away as Japan and participants from as far away as Siberia were part of the entourage as a dusty wagon train recreating the event rolled along the Mormon Trail in Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming and, finally, Utah.
      "The church got an unbelievable amount of publicity on that trek," Gwynne said. "I read the Texas papers here every day and (the church) got big-time coverage — even a couple of front-page photographs."
      Last, but certainly not least, was the likelihood the magazine would have access to the faith's leader, President Gordon B. Hinckley.
      President Hinckley held a press conference the day after he was ordained as the church's leader in March 1995. Reporters quickly became aware his door would often be open to them.
      President Hinckley expressed some trepidation, during his closing remarks at the church's annual general conference in April 1996, over the interview he had granted with Mike Wallace of CBS's "60 Minutes." The program would air hours later.
      The reputation "60 Minutes" has established is based on its roasts, not on any sense of repose it instills in the objects of its interviews. President Hinckley knew the story would also include interviews from some of the church's antagonists but jumped at the chance to present an affirmative (and authoritative) message about the church to a vast television audience.
      "I concluded that it was better to lean into the stiff wind of opportunity than to simply hunker down and do nothing," he told the conference audience. If the program went badly, he said, "I pledge I won't get my foot caught in that kind of trap again."
      He must not have been displeased. Not only did President Hinckley continue granting interviews, he quoted portions of his interview with Wallace that were edited from the program when he spoke during the church's next general conference six months after the program aired.
      The "60 Minutes" interview also caught Time's attention.
      "Mike Wallace is not exactly a pushover," said Gwynne, who also interviewed the church president.
      In an interview, "He's good," Gwynne said of the church's leader. "I think one of the reasons the church is so visible these days is it's got a president who's so good at that."
      Gwynne said he had never been to Salt Lake City before the recent story assignment came along but had long been interested in the church because of its role in the United States' westward expansion.
      He wasn't surprised when the church didn't lay open the books on all of its financial holdings; and he wasn't surprised after the story was published that the church responded by saying his estimates of the church's finances grossly exaggerated the church's income.
      Otherwise, "I was very pleased with how helpful people in the church were," Gwynne added. "I thought they were rather open and accessible — much more so than I thought they would be.