Clark Gilbert

Clark Gilbert is the head of Deseret Digital Media (since fall, 2009), a new division consolidating new media ventures owned by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In late May, he also became the President and CEO of Deseret News.  (Gilbert kept the newspaper’s editor and publisher in place.)

Gilbert came into his new positions with the theory that new media thrive when separated out organizationally from the traditional paper.  Under his leadership,  Deseret Digital grew page views by 50 per cent and unique monthly visitors by 40 per cent over the last year.  That helped the Deseret News finish first in growth of combined print and online readership among American newspapers in the most recent period measured by the Audit Bureau of Circulations. The church’s KSL.com has revenues up 50 percent year to year and is the fourth largest broadcast site in the country measured in page views.

Two strategies are fueling this digital growth.  First, Gilbert has built an executive team recruiting from a range of non-newspaper digital successes: Blockbuster, Omniture, Overstock.com and Demand Media.  Second, the church connection provides an unusual opportunity to build beyond the typical local audience.  Sixty percent of the traffic comes from outside of Utah, because there are Mormons all over the world, and these businesses cater in part to them.  That prompts content that “is more thoughtful, more global” than just local breaking news. [1]

Gilbert is a former Harvard Business School professor, consultant and specialist in disruptive change.  Gilbert earned his bachelors degree at Brigham Young University (BYU). He has a masters degree from Stanford University and a Doctorate of Business Administration from Harvard Business School.   At Harvard, he was a lead author of the American Press Institute’s study on ways for newspapers to transition to the digital age.  [2] He also served on several newspaper company boards including those of Deseret businesses. He moved west from Cambridge several years ago to direct online and distance learning programs at Brigham Young University-Idaho.  At BYU-Idaho he also served as Associate Academic Vice President of Academic Development.

Gilberts agrees that the newspaper industry’s revenue prospects are “two years of flat to slightly positive, then long-term decline.” That argues for making digital the growth engine, rather than a side business, very quickly, as Gilbert is attempting to do in Salt Lake City.

Gilbert and his wife Christine are the parents of seven children.