Hearst Elects Four Execs to Its Board of Directors

By: E&P Staff Hearst Corporation announced Monday that four executives have been elected to its board of directors: George R. Hearst III, publisher of the Times Union in Albany, N.Y.; Richard P. Malloch, president of Hearst Business Media and senior vice president of Hearst Corporation; Scott M. Sassa, president of Hearst Entertainment & Syndication and senior vice president of Hearst Corporation; and Steven R. Swartz, president of Hearst Newspapers and senior vice president of Hearst Corp.

The announcement was made by Frank A. Bennack Jr., vice chairman and chief executive officer of Hearst Corp., and George R. Hearst Jr., chairman of the company?s board of directors. The elections were effective Oct. 1, and the four executives join the 16 other members of the Board.

George R. Hearst III has been at the Times Union in Albany since 1989, and has served as its vice president, associate publisher and general manager. He also led several multimillion-dollar capital renewal programs at the paper, including the implementation of digital publishing standards and content systems for news and advertising.

Malloch joined Hearst in 1991 as the deputy head of Hearst's Consumer Book Publishing and Trade Magazine Group. He changed Hearst's trade publishing strategy and business model, moving the renamed Hearst Business Media Group toward revenue generated from subscriptions and licensing fees. Today, the business focuses on the automotive, electronics, financial, health care and pharmaceutical industries.

As president of Hearst Entertainment & Syndication, Sassa oversees the group responsible for the company's interests in cable television networks, television programming activities, newspaper syndication and merchandise licensing. Prior to joining Hearst in 2008, he served as founder and CEO of Uber, a consumer Internet start-up; CEO-in-residence at the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers; an NBC executive; and president and CEO of Friendster, a top-50 Internet site that helped pioneer social networking.

Swartz has been with Hearst Newspapers since 2001 and was named president in 2008, overseeing the company's ownership of 15 daily and 49 weekly papers. Swartz 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. He 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.

"All four executives are highly skilled leaders in their respective fields who we believe will bring their expertise and strategic visions to the entire company as board members," Bennack said in a statement.