Gilbert C. Maurer, director and former chief operating officer of Hearst and trustee of the trust established under the will of William Randolph Hearst, died April 6 at his home in Palm Beach, Florida. He was 96.
Maurer joined Hearst in 1973 and was named president of Hearst Magazines three years later. He rose to become Hearst’s chief operating officer in 1990. In 1998, he announced his retirement but remained a trustee of the Hearst Family trust and director of Hearst corporation until his death. He was also a director of the Hearst Foundations.
“Gil Maurer lived a remarkable life,” said Steven R. Swartz, Hearst president and CEO. “He helped build the modern Hearst corporation and kept working on it until the day he died. He was an artist, a civic leader, a savvy investor and philanthropist, and with his wife Ann he built a great family and found time to travel the world many times over. Our Hearst colleagues and I learned so many life lessons from Gil and we are forever in his debt.”
“Gil’s contributions to Hearst were nothing less than extraordinary,” said Frank A. Bennack, Jr., executive vice chairman and former CEO of Hearst. “For almost 50 years, he was my partner in general management, and during that time, Hearst became one of the fastest-growing media companies in the world. His performance as head of Hearst Magazines was superb, and he was my partner in the expansion of our newspaper publishing, cable networking, broadcasting and new media interests as well. The entire company and Hearst family feel his loss deeply. He will be missed.”
Maurer was a force for growth and creativity at Hearst for over 50 years. He was integral at championing change and broadening Hearst’s business operations, and his impact is evident today throughout all of Hearst’s varied companies and teams worldwide. As chief operating officer, he was instrumental in Hearst’s diversification as it expanded its broadcast and digital media and other new business ventures. As president of Hearst Magazines for 14 years, ad revenues more than quadrupled during his tenure.
Maurer was equally visionary in Hearst’s broadcast activities, which led to the company’s expansion in television and its involvement and success in cable. In 1997, he helped create Hearst-Argyle Television, today Hearst Television, one of the country’s largest television station groups. He and Bennack also worked closely to identify and invest in cable, first in the creation of Lifetime, A&E and HISTORY networks, followed by an investment in ESPN.
His business acumen aside, Maurer was also an accomplished artist and philanthropist. In fact, his lineage includes a distinguished family background of artists, including Alfred Maurer (1868-1932), who has been described as America’s first modernist painter.
Maurer and his late wife Ann were married 69 years. They were committed to their family and, 30 years ago, created the Maurer Family Foundation with the purpose of bringing the family together in support of the arts in America. Meredith Hutchison, Maurer’s daughter and president of the foundation said, “We are deeply saddened by the loss of our father but are grateful for our parents’ incredible legacy and the chance to carry on their wishes through the family foundation.”
2024 saw an important accolade for Gil Maurer: Bonnie McElveen-Hunter, former ambassador to Finland, commissioned an orchestral piece written by Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Ellen Zwilich to honor his artworks and life that debuted in February, performed by the Palm Beach Symphony.
In 2023, Maurer was elected to the Sterling Fellows of Yale University, the highest honor that the university accords to individuals for their support. Sterling Fellows are recognized for their ongoing efforts to make a positive impact at Yale and for helping the university continue its legacy of providing the best education and producing the world’s future leaders.
Maurer has been recognized in multiple ways for his pioneering vision, evidenced by his 2021 honor as a Living Landmark at the Annual New York Landmarks Conservancy Celebration, which acknowledges distinguished New Yorkers. He also debuted an exhibit of his work in watercolors at Hearst Tower, The Artist’s Eye: Gilbert Maurer, which chronicled his travel with his late wife Ann and family over his lifetime.
In 2020, he published Gil Maurer’s Subtreasury: A Personal Collection of Quotations, Adages, Aphorisms, Curious Facts, and Rules of Thumb, a hardcover with over 2,000 entries deposited into 571 pages.
Maurer was also an honorary trustee of the Norman Foster Foundation, which promotes interdisciplinary thinking and research to guide new generations of architects, designers and urbanists as they build for the future. He has long held a deep love for both the arts and architecture, which made this honor a natural fit. He was instrumental in hiring Norman Foster to design Hearst Tower in 1999 — a move that would change not only New York City’s skyline forever but the image of Hearst itself.
Maurer’s architectural committee selected Foster, one of the most celebrated architects in the world, known for projects that combine striking modernity with advanced and environmentally friendly building technologies, to build something remarkable on top of Hearst’s 1920s art deco headquarters — much like Maurer’s vision for the company itself, building on top of a storied legacy first established by William Randolph Hearst in 1887.
He was influential in creating the Hearst 8X10 Photography Biennial competition, which launched in 2009 to recognize and showcase the professional work of talented young photographers. He was also steadfast in his vision for Hearst to recruit and retain the world’s finest creative talents, continuing Hearst’s distinguished legacy of attracting and showcasing talents like Helen Gurley Brown, John Mack Carter, Slim Aarons, Diane Arbus, Andy Warhol, Richard Avedon, Lillian Bassman, Robert Frank, Lee Friedlander, Philippe Halsman and Martin Munkácsi.
Though a true media iconoclast, Maurer never stopped loving print magazines. He strategized as an executive that test-launching titles would both cut startup magazine costs and prevent indefinite losses. He once told an interviewer that focus groups, the mainstay of print marketing, didn’t answer his most critical question: “Does somebody honestly want to part with money to buy this?” Less investment made for a quicker rebound; he called this his “Fail Fast” philosophy. And in fact, three of Hearst’s greatest magazine success stories — Food Network Magazine, HGTV Magazine and O, The Oprah Magazine — launched this way. O, The Oprah Magazine, which debuted in 2000, is still widely known as the most successful magazine launch in modern publishing history.
Art and architecture have a long and living history in the life of Hearst. Begun in the late 1970s, Hearst’s art collection inspired and curated by Maurer is principally a collection of notable contemporary American works on paper: prints, drawings, watercolors and photographs. Maurer’s desire to always look ahead and to support emerging artists allowed for an expansion of the collection into video art and various dimensional experiments with light and sculpture. Artists featured in the collection include Andy Warhol, Lalla Essaydi, Francis Bacon, Chuck Close, Edward Ruscha, Anish Kapoor and Dorothea Lange.
Maurer was fascinated by sales and marketing from an early age. After graduating from St. Lawrence University and earning his MBA from Harvard, he considered a job offer from Lever Brothers — an impressive offer at $80 a week — but the Cowles family publishing company got him for $100 to learn about magazines and publishing. He began his career at Look magazine in 1952 and quickly proved he could master both sides of magazines, editorial and business. Maurer was senior vice president and director of the Famous Artists School after spending 19 years at Cowles Communications, Inc., where he became one of the company’s top three executives while still in his 30s.
His long and storied publishing career brought him honors and mentees by the dozens. Maurer received the 1986 Henry Johnson Fisher Award, the magazine industry's most prestigious honor, for his significant contributions to the publishing business. He was past chairman of the board of directors of the Magazine Publishers of America, now The News/Media Alliance. Other awards include the Anti-Defamation League's Distinguished Public Service Award, the International Center of Photography’s Trustee Award and a Special Alumni Certificate for his efforts on behalf of St. Lawrence University, his alma mater.
Maurer was a trustee of the Whitney Museum of American Art, serving as president of the Whitney Museum Board from 1993 to 1998. He was also a trustee and director of the Norton Museum of Art in Palm Beach, Fla., where he was honored for his contributions in the notable expansion of the museum. Additionally, he was a vice chairman and director of the Society of the Four Arts in Palm Beach, a member of the Dean’s Council at the Yale School of Architecture, an overseer of the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) in Los Angeles, a member of the Greater New York Advisory Board of the Salvation Army and a member of the Board of Managers of the New York Botanical Gardens. He was a chairman of the Board of Visitors of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University and member of the Board of Visitors to the art museums at Harvard University.
Maurer is predeceased by his spouse Ann E. Maurer, and survived by their five children, Christopher, David, Peter, Jonathan and Meredith, their spouses, 11 grandchildren and four great grandchildren.
Arrangements are being made for memorial services in Palm Beach and New York City. In lieu of flowers the family requests donations be made in Maurer’s honor to the Norton Museum, The Society of the Four Arts, the Whitney Museum of American Art and Yale School of Architecture.
