Clark Gilbert, CEO of Deseret Publishing Company and Deseret Digital Media, gave the most recent Tech Talk to the Women’s Tech Council on Nov 30. His wide-ranging presentation covered disruptive innovations, guiding a print newspaper AND a digital media company at the same time, and news distribution in the digital age.

It seems like a pretty big challenge to take the helm of a newspaper that’s been in business for over one hundred years, especially today, when newspapers are dying right and left. In fact, Gilbert said, almost all “two-newspaper cities” have lost one of those two papers in the last ten years. Since Salt Lake City has two main papers, Gilbert had reason to be concerned for Deseret News’s future.

Surprisingly, the answer to keeping a newspaper alive in the digital age is NOT to “go digital.” At least, not in the traditional way. Gilbert shared lessons he’s learned from the history of disruptive innovations—those inventions that changed the world and led to the downfall of older, entrenched companies—and from the people who couldn’t see that the newer technology would change the future (the president of United Wireless telegraph company rejected the telephone when it was offered to him, for example; main-frame computer manufacturers sneered at the first personal computers to come along).

Gilbert found himself wrestling with how to incorporate a disruptive innovation—in this case, online media—into a traditional newspaper print business. Studying past instances of disruptive innovations taught him that the obvious solutions wouldn’t work. Abandoning the Deseret News paper is not a sound business decision, since the paper is still economically viable; neither does it make sense to force the paper to follow the growth trajectory of Deseret Digital Media. Instead, Gilbert’s studies of good companies that fail convinced him that he had to keep the two business arms separate. “We’ve found ways to give Deseret News a distinctive voice so it will continue being commercially viable,” he said, “while at the same time, we are launching Deseret Digital Media on its own trajectory.”

It’s a business plan that’s worked in the past. Gilbert launched a cutting-edge online teaching system while he was a vice-president at BYU-Idaho. Over years of refining, the program gained higher and higher levels of student approval. Today, the average online class is rated as more successful than the average traditional class. Is there still a place for traditional teaching? Gilbert says there is. In fact, the very top-rated 10% of classes are all traditional. “The online platform is very successful,” he said, “at providing consistently high levels of instruction. But for the most effective instruction, we find that nothing can replace face-to-face teacher-student interaction. So traditional instruction is still very much relevant.”

In much the same way, Gilbert envisions Deseret Digital Media as a usable, practical platform that provides Salt Lake-based news—but there is still a niche for Deseret News to fill.  To keep the newspaper viable, Gilbert publishes longer thought pieces and uses writers who have already developed a loyal following. In other words, he has found a way to combine a traditional business and a disruptive innovation and make them both thrive. We wish him the best!

Amy Chamberlain is the writer and researcher at the School Improvement Network, where she researches the latest educational topics and writes professional development programs for educators. She is interested in the topic of technology in education and in recognizing excellent educators for the work that they do. You can reach her at amy.chamberlain@schoolimprovement.com.

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