Times Mirror Forms Panel for Operations : Members Will Supervise Communications Units

Times Mirror said Wednesday that it is forming a new operations management committee, a group of senior executives that will supervise the operations of the corporation’s newspapers and other communications properties.

Tom Johnson, publisher of the Los Angeles Times, and David Laventhol, publisher of Newsday on Long Island, N.Y., were named senior vice presidents and members of the committee. Johnson previously was group vice president for Western newspapers. Laventhol held the same title for Eastern newspapers.

Times Mirror, based in Los Angeles, publishes eight newspapers and owns various other media properties in television, cable television, magazines, books and electronics.

Also on the committee are Robert F. Erburu, president and chief executive; Phillip Williams, executive vice president for newspapers and television, and Dow W. Carpenter, senior vice president for book, magazine, cable television and other operations. Erburu, Williams and Carpenter previously comprised the company’s newspaper management committee.

Increasing Role

Johnson and Laventhol will “play an increasing role in the overall management of Times Mirror,” Erburu said.

Separately Wednesday, the company nominated Williams to the board of directors. Elections will take place at the annual shareholders meeting April 30.

Williams would fill the seat vacated by Dr. Franklin D. Murphy, former chairman and chief executive and currently chairman of the board’s executive committee. Murphy, 70, is ineligible for reelection under the board’s mandatory retirement rules. Under a previously announced plan, Otis Chandler, currently Times Mirror chairman and editor-in-chief, will succeed Murphy as chairman of the executive committee Jan. 1, and Erburu will succeed Chandler as chairman of the board.

Times Mirror’s board also approved a plan to reincorporate the company in Delaware, where laws permit such anti-takeover moves as creating staggered terms for directors and setting more stringent rules for nominating and electing board members. The plan still requires shareholder approval at a special meeting in February.

In another action, the company raised its quarterly dividend on common stock to 37.5 cents per share from 34 cents, payable March 10 to shareholders of record Feb. 21.