Contact Information: Media Contacts: Debra Shriver Hearst Corporation 212-649-2461 dshriver@hearst.com Paul J. Luthringer Hearst Corporation 212-649-2540 pluthringer@hearst.com
Steven R. Swartz Named President, Hearst Newspapers, and Senior Vice President, Hearst Corporation
George B. Irish to Become Vice President and Eastern Director of The Hearst Foundations
| Source: Hearst Corporation
NEW YORK, NY--(Marketwire - December 10, 2008) - Hearst Corporation today announced that Steven
R. Swartz has been named president, Hearst Newspapers, the operating group
responsible for Hearst's newspapers and yellow pages businesses. Swartz
will also become senior vice president, Hearst Corporation.
George B. Irish, who has served as president of the Group, is retiring
after 29 years with Hearst Corporation and will become vice president and
eastern director of the two Hearst Foundations, the William Randolph Hearst
Foundation of California and The Hearst Foundation, Inc. of New York, which
are independent entities and separate from the Corporation.
The announcements were made by Frank A. Bennack, Jr., vice chairman and CEO
of Hearst Corporation, and will be effective Jan. 1, 2009.
Swartz, 46, takes over one of America's leading newspaper groups, where he
has been executive vice president since 2001. Hearst Newspapers, with more
than 6,500 employees across the nation, publishes 16 dailies and 49
weeklies in cities including Houston, San Francisco, Seattle, San Antonio
and Albany. Under Swartz's leadership, Hearst played a key role in founding
the newspaper industry's consortium with Yahoo!, launching the industry's
partnership with the online real estate company Zillow and forming
quadrantONE, a national online sales network co-owned by Hearst, The New
York Times Company, Gannett and Tribune.
Commenting on the announcement, Bennack said: "The world of newspapering is
undoubtedly changing and Hearst is at the forefront of building new models
that will transform the way we do business. Steve, alongside George, has
been instrumental in forecasting and implementing the changes we have to
make to be successful in the future. I congratulate Steve and thank George
for his many contributions to the Corporation during his nearly three
decades with Hearst Newspapers. We wish him well in his new role at The
Hearst Foundations."
Swartz also led Hearst's acquisition of a majority stake in Metrix4Media, a
Frisco, Texas-based search engine marketing company that now supports the
sales efforts of numerous newspaper and yellow pages companies. Swartz has
also overseen Hearst's yellow pages operations since late 2006. Before
joining Hearst in 2001, Swartz was president and chief executive of
SmartMoney, the magazine, Web site and custom publishing business co-owned
by Hearst and News Corp.'s Dow Jones unit. Prior to becoming CEO in 1995,
Swartz had been the magazine's founding editor since 1991. Under his
leadership, SmartMoney won two National Magazine Awards and was Advertising
Age's Magazine of the Year.
Irish, who will turn 65 in February, has successfully led Hearst Newspapers
since 1998. Under his direction, the Group invested in operations and
expanded its journalistic enterprise both in print and online. Before
leading Hearst Newspapers, Irish was a vice president and group executive
for Hearst Newspapers, a post he held since 1993. Irish joined Hearst in
1979 with the acquisition of the Midland (Mich.) Daily News and
subsequently held several executive positions with Hearst Newspapers. He
served as publisher of the San Antonio (Texas) Light from 1988 to 1993; the
Beaumont (Texas) Enterprise from 1984 to 1988; the Midland (Texas)
Reporter-Telegram from 1982 to 1984; and Midland Daily News from 1980 to
1982.
Irish is a past president of the Texas Daily Newspaper Association and
received the 1992 Texas Newspaper Leader of the Year Award, known as the
Pat Taggart Memorial Award, the highest honor given by Texas newspapers. He
currently serves on the boards of the Newspaper Association of America, the
United Way of New York City, the International Center for Journalists, the
READ Foundation, the Nieman Foundation Board of Advisors and the Columbia
University Graduate School of Journalism Board of Visitors.
Swartz began his journalism career as a reporter with the Wall Street
Journal in 1984 after graduating from Harvard. He served as an editor on
the Journal's Page One staff from 1989 to 1991.
Hearst Corporation is one of the nation's largest diversified media
companies. Its major interests include ownership of 16 daily and 49 weekly
newspapers, including the Houston Chronicle, San Francisco Chronicle and
Albany Times Union; as well as interests in an additional 43 daily and 72
non-daily newspapers owned by MediaNews Group, which include the Denver
Post and Salt Lake Tribune; nearly 200 magazines around the world,
including Good Housekeeping, Cosmopolitan and O, The Oprah Magazine; 29
television stations through Hearst-Argyle Television (NYSE : HTV ), which
reach a combined 18% of U.S. viewers; ownership in leading cable networks,
including Lifetime, A&E, History and ESPN; as well as business publishing,
including a minority joint venture interest in Fitch Ratings; Internet
businesses, television production, newspaper features distribution and real
estate.