Times Executives Falk, Higby Promoted; Isenberg to Newsday : Media: Falk will oversee all business functions. Higby is named executive vice president, marketing.

EuGene L. Falk has been named executive vice president and general manager of the Los Angeles Times, and Lawrence M. Higby has been named executive vice president, marketing, it was announced Wednesday.

David Laventhol, The Times’ publisher and chief executive officer, said the promotions will take effect in September, when Steven L. Isenberg, currently The Times’ executive vice president, marketing, leaves Los Angeles to rejoin Newsday, the Long Island, N.Y.-based paper, as deputy publisher. Newsday is owned by The Times’ parent, Times Mirror Co.

“Steve Isenberg has provided innovative and aggressive marketing leadership for The Times during a critical and challenging time in its history, and he will be sorely missed,” said Laventhol, who also is president of Times Mirror. “But he will play a crucial leadership role at Newsday as it continues to progress in the competitive New York marketplace.”

Laventhol added: “We are fortunate to have senior executives of the caliber of Gene Falk and Larry Higby ready to assume broader responsibility.”

Laventhol also announced that Douglas B. Fox, president of Newsday, would become vice president for marketing of Times Mirror’s newspaper group. Laventhol said that Fox “will significantly enhance Times Mirror’s marketing capabilities.”

Falk, 49, has been executive vice president, administration, since joining The Times in 1990. He worked previously as an executive for newspapers owned by Knight-Ridder Inc. in Philadelphia and San Jose. In his new role, Falk will be responsible for all business functions of The Times--assuming responsibility for the paper’s marketing divisions while continuing to oversee operations, finance, employee relations and other departments.

Falk will continue to report to Laventhol, as will Editor and Executive Vice President Shelby Coffey III.

Higby, 47, joined The Times in 1989 and is senior vice president, consumer marketing, as well as president of the paper’s Orange County edition. Higby was a deputy assistant to President Richard M. Nixon in the early 1970s and later became a marketing executive with Pepsi-Cola USA, Taco Bell and Times Mirror Cable Television.

In his new position, Higby will oversee The Times’ advertising sales, marketing research and associated departments. He also will remain responsible for circulation, promotion and marketing at the paper’s editions in Orange County, the San Fernando Valley, Ventura and San Diego. Higby will report to Falk.

“Gene Falk is one of the most knowledgeable newspaper executives anywhere, and Larry Higby is a unique, creative marketer specifically attuned to the changing environment newspapers are facing,” Laventhol said. “Together with Editor Shelby Coffey, they will provide strong leadership, drawing on both a vision of the future and The Times’ great traditions of journalistic commitment and business excellence.”