This past Thursday I was privileged to attend a presentation by Mark Willes, CEO of Deseret Magazine Corporation. The most important thing I took from Mark Willes presentation was one of the first things he said, “You can be taught from on high.” By this he meant that we, as the audience, must listen to the spirit and be taught in that way. We will not learn from his words, but from the spirit. If we all were to get something different from Willes presentation, then in his eyes he would be successful.
It was quite scary the numbers he presented, that newspapers had not lost money until 2008, when nearly all newspapers began losing money. This is a scary statistic because to this day, the newspaper industry is still in the negative income. How is it possible that a small Mormon-based newspaper still exists in this dying profession? It is because it is written to a specific niche, but also because of the morals that Deseret Industries are dedicated to following. Editors will work for absolutely no pay, just because they believe in the mission statement of Deseret. Which is: “Trusted voice of light and knowledge reaching hundreds of millions of people worldwide.” This is reached by the following steps: align actions, pursue excellence, champion virtues, improve lives, work together, invest personally.
Even though it really scared me that journalism is being overridden by the internet, Willes left us students with a message of hope. He believes in BYU and the students that go here. As a University, we have an advantage over others going into broadcasting and print journalism because we are willing to follow a different path than the average person. It is this special twist of our mindset that will help us to bring something different to the table. This twist is necessary for success, because without something new, we will die with the rest of them.
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