Business News
Steven R. Swartz Named President, Hearst Newspapers, and Senior Vice President, Hearst Corporation
Thursday 11. December 2008 - George B. Irish to Become Vice President and Eastern Director of The Hearst Foundations
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.