Times Mirror Restructures; New President Is Appointed

Directors of Times Mirror Co. approved a corporate restructuring plan Wednesday that includes naming a new president and appointing two vice chairmen, effective Jan. 1.

Under the plan, David Laventhol, chairman of Newsday on Long Island, N.Y., and currently a corporate senior vice president, will become president of the Los Angeles-based media company.

Times Mirror Chairman and Chief Executive Robert F. Erburu, 55, will relinquish the title of president and continue in his other positions. All Times Mirror operating units will report to Laventhol, 52, who in turn will report to Erburu.

Also under the plan, Phillip L. Williams, 63, executive vice president, and Tom Johnson, 44, publisher of the Los Angeles Times and a corporate senior vice president, will become vice chairmen.

Williams, who was elected to the board at the company’s annual meeting Wednesday, will relinquish his current title of executive vice president. Johnson will remain publisher of The Times.

Both Laventhol and Johnson will be recommended for election to the board after the plan goes into effect.

Times Mirror, which owns The Times, Newsday and six other newspapers, also has properties in broadcasting, magazine and book publishing, cable television and other communications ventures.

Erburu said the corporate restructuring is designed to “ensure a strong leadership team and continuity of purpose” for Times Mirror’s future. “In David Laventhol and Tom Johnson we have a unique team” that will “ensure a continuing preeminent position for the company in the communications industry,” Erburu said.

The plan continues the corporate restructuring that began a year ago when former Chairman and Times Mirror Editor-in-Chief Otis Chandler announced that he would become chairman of the executive committee.

Erburu, Williams, Laventhol, Johnson and Senior Vice President Dow W. Carpenter Jr. are all currently members of the operations management committee, which oversees Times Mirror operations. Carpenter is senior vice president for book and magazine publishing, cable television and information services.

Laventhol was executive editor of Newsday when Times Mirror acquired the newspaper in 1970. He became vice president of Newsday in 1971, executive vice president in 1974, publisher and chief executive in 1978 and chairman of the newspaper last Jan. 1. Laventhol also became Times Mirror senior vice president in charge of Eastern newspapers in December, 1985.

Williams joined Times Mirror as a vice president in 1969, and he has held a variety of positions, including senior vice president for newspapers and television, before becoming executive vice president.

Johnson joined Times Mirror in 1973, when the company acquired KTBC-TV in Austin, Tex., where he was vice president. He later served as editor and then publisher of the Dallas Times Herald. In 1977, he joined The Times as president and chief operating officer, and he became publisher and chief executive in 1980. He was elected vice president of the company in 1981 and senior vice president last December.

In that capacity, Johnson was also responsible for the Dallas Times Herald and the Denver Post.

At Times Mirror’s annual meeting, Erburu announced that The Times is “in the process of acquiring” a 20-acre site less than two miles from the newspaper’s downtown Los Angeles headquarters where the paper may relocate its presses and production operations.

Erburu said the company is studying the project to “complete modernization of The Times’ production facilities, eliminate the crowded conditions inherent in the current location and provide direct rail access for newsprint delivery.”

“Should this program be activated,” Erburu said, “it will be implemented over a multiyear time span.”

Although Erburu declined to forecast operating income for the year, he said net income--including gains from the sale of assets--”will far outstrip previous levels.”

Erburu said the company would report a gain before taxes of $168 million this year on the previously announced sale of its microwave company, a share of its Las Vegas cable system and three television stations. The sales, Erburu said, will also provide the company with about $275 million in cash, added to $250 million from other divestitures.

At the same time, Erburu said, the company will explore further acquisitions, further divestitures, capital expenditures and the development of new products as part of its overall strategy of restructuring the company around its primary business areas.

One project, the expansion of the New York City edition of Newsday, already has attracted a circulation of 100,000, mostly in the borough of Queens, where the newspaper now exceeds the New York Times in circulation, he said.