Downing Is Named Publisher of The Times

Kathryn M. Downing on Thursday was named publisher of the Los Angeles Times, succeeding Mark H. Willes, who will devote himself full time to running the newspaper’s parent company.

Downing, 46, a newcomer to the industry when she was named president and chief executive officer of The Times in March 1998, will retain her previous duties in addition to taking on the role of publisher.

She becomes the first woman to head The Times in its 118-year history and one of the most powerful women in the newspaper industry.

The path for Downing’s elevation was cleared Thursday when Willes relinquished his role as publisher to focus entirely on his duties as chairman, chief executive officer and president of Los Angeles-based Times Mirror Co., parent of The Times.

Willes, 57, credited Downing with executing an overhaul of The Times’ business operations that, he said, is expected to produce an increase in operating profit for the second quarter of this year--a turnaround from five consecutive quarters of year-over-year declines. The two executives declined to elaborate on the financial results, saying that official numbers would be released in mid-July.

Willes acknowledged the tumult in The Times’ management ranks since he stepped in as publisher in 1997 and the criticism that some of his initiatives have triggered. While publisher, Willes drew his sharpest criticism for vowing to more closely link the newspaper’s business and editorial operations, a move that critics said could breach the paper’s journalistic integrity. Much of that criticism subsided, however, after the newspaper won two Pulitzer Prizes last year and another this year.

Times Editor Michael Parks said Downing had always expressed “total support” for the paper’s editorial operation and journalistic independence, and “I don’t see that changing.”

Willes asserted that the newspaper’s period of turmoil has ended, that an effective business strategy has been put in place and that he is “more confident than I ever have been before that we have a group of people who can carry it out.”

He said the decision to give up the reins of The Times was painful for him, especially given the newspaper’s improving fortunes, but added that it was time to let Downing take over.

“Good leaders know when to get in, and they know when to get out,” he said.

Downing said her key aim as publisher is to boost circulation of The Times, the nation’s largest metropolitan daily.

According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, for the six-month period ended March 31 The Times had a daily circulation of 1,098,347 and Sunday circulation of 1,385,787. Among all U.S. newspapers, The Times is fourth largest, behind USA Today, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times, all considered national publications.

Downing reaffirmed that the newspaper’s goal is to boost circulation by about 1 million--a projection that has been ridiculed in some quarters as hopelessly unrealistic. At the same time, she acknowledged that the newspaper’s circulation has declined somewhat in the second quarter of this year, a trend that she and Willes vowed would be reversed quickly.

Downing said that the newspaper’s circulation trend is “in transition” but that she anticipates gains from initiatives such as the new Our Times community news sections and partnerships with local publications La Opinion and Korea Times.

Analysts interpreted Downing’s ascension as a sign that Willes has enough confidence in the company’s short-term profit growth that he can step back and focus on specific problem areas at Times Mirror.

“He’s obviously feeling more comfortable,” said Peter Appert, a media analyst with BT Alex. Brown. Willes’ predictions for quarterly growth make his move, Appert said, “more appropriate from a timing perspective. I don’t think of it as that radical a change.”

Indeed, Appert and other analysts describe Downing as an executive cut from the same cloth as Willes. Both executives said they would continue such initiatives as the hiring of business managers for each section of The Times, a pivotal part of the effort to link editorial and business operations.

Downing’s promotion places her in the relatively thin ranks of women publishers who have run the nation’s largest newspapers.

Among the others are Cathleen Black, publisher of USA Today from 1984 to 1991, who later became head of the newspaper industry’s chief trade group. In addition, Katherine Graham was publisher of the Washington Post from 1969 to 1979 and is now chairwoman of that paper’s parent company.

“I think it’s good for journalism in general,” Cynthia Rawitch, head of the journalism department at Cal State Northridge, said. “There are a fair number of women publishers out there, but many of them are of smaller papers.”

Before coming to The Times, Downing was president and chief executive first of Times Mirror’s Matthew Bender publishing unit, then of the combined Mosby Matthew Bender unit. Before joining Times Mirror in 1995, she was president and chief executive of Lawyers Cooperative Publishing, a unit of Thomson Legal Publishing.

From 1990 to 1993, she was president and chief operating officer of Electronic Publishing, a unit of Thomson Professional Publishing. From 1981 to 1990, she held a variety of posts at Mead Data Central, provider of Lexis/Nexis services. She earned a bachelor of arts degree in economics from Lewis and Clark College and a law degree from Stanford University.