New Times Mirror CEO Vows Innovation, Growth

Times Mirror Co.’s new chief executive said Tuesday that he hopes to bring “innovation, evolution and creativity” to the company’s existing businesses while being “smart and disciplined” about investing in new media.

Mark H. Willes, the General Mills Inc. vice chairman whom Times Mirror directors Monday named to succeed Robert F. Erburu, was introduced to shareholders Tuesday morning at the company’s annual meeting at its Los Angeles headquarters. Willes will become president and chief executive on June 1 and chairman on Jan. 1.

In brief remarks at the meeting and at a news conference afterward, Willes said that while Times Mirror’s role as an information provider makes it akin to a public trust, it must also be committed to providing investors with “an appropriate and growing rate of return.”

Times Mirror is the parent of the Los Angeles Times, Newsday, the Baltimore Sun and other newspapers. It also publishes magazines and books and, among its new ventures, produces consumer multimedia and cable television programming.

Some shareholders have been disgruntled with the performance of Times Mirror stock, which since 1991 has lagged in both the Standard & Poor’s 500 and a peer group of media companies.

In response to a shareholder’s question at the annual meeting, Erburu said Times Mirror will consider a stock repurchase program in the future, although it is currently barred from doing so for tax reasons related to the company’s recent $2.3-billion merger of its cable TV operations with Cox Communications Inc.

During the news conference, Willes advocated a consumer-driven rather than a technology-driven approach to new-media ventures. Rather than asking what can be done technologically, he said, the company should be asking, “What are people really interested in and willing to pay for?”

By concentrating its creativity on newspapers and other existing products that “are going to be here for a long time,” Willes said the company will give itself breathing room to develop new products when they make sense.

Times Mirror stock closed at $18.875 a share Tuesday, up 87.5 cents, after trading as high as $19.125 on the New York Stock Exchange.