Hearst Corporation
Headquarters:
300 W. 57th St.
New York, NY 10019
Employees: 20,000
CEO: Steven Swartz
Privately owned
Website:
http://www.hearst.com
Career Site
Hearst is one of the nation's largest privately-held
media companies with interests in TV and radio stations, cable
networks, newspapers, magazines and Internet sites.
Hearst Broadcasting has ownership stakes in ESPN (20% with Disney), A&E networks and Lifetime. The Hearst-Argyle Television company is publicly-traded and owns 29 TV stations and two radio stations.
Hearst Newspapers operates 15 daily papers that include Albany Times-Union, San Francisco Chronicle, Houston Chronicle, Connecticut Post and San Antonio Express-News.
Hearst Magazines is a one of the world's largest publishers of monthly magazines, with a total of 20 U.S. titles and nearly 300 international editions. Titles include Cosmpolitan, Esquire, O the Oprah Magazine, Popular Mechanics, Redbook and Seventeen. The company also publishes 19 magazines in the United Kingdom. In 2012, Hearst launched HGTV magazine.
The company also owns a 50% stake in global ratings agency The Fitch Group.
The company's headquarters is located on 57th Street in the Hearst Tower. The 46-story glass skyscraper was built in 2006 on the frame of the original headquarters building and contains environmentally sound features with 90% of the building's steel constructed from recycled material.
History
March 4, 1887 -
William Randolph Hearst, age 23, becomes Proprietor of the San
Francisco Examiner.
1895 - W. R. Hearst acquires a second newspaper, the New
York Journal, and moves to New York City.
1903 - Hearst launches his first magazine, Motor. Today
the magazine is published by Hearst Business Media for auto-care
professionals.
1905 - Hearst acquires its first magazine, Cosmopolitan,
then a popular fiction monthly. Today Cosmo is the largest-selling
young women's magazine in the world.
1910 - Hearst establishes The National Magazine Company
Limited, one of the United Kingdom's
leading magazine publishers.
1911 - Good Housekeeping, the premier women's service
magazine, is acquired.
1912 - Hearst acquires Harper's BAZAAR, the distinguished
fashion magazine.
1915 - King Features Syndicate is formed to consolidate
the company's pioneering efforts in comic syndication. It is
now the world's largest distributor of newspaper comics and text
features ("Blondie," "Beetle Bailey," "Popeye,"
"Hägar the Horrible," "Hints from Heloise").
1921 - Hearst acquires the Seattle Post-Intelligencer
newspaper, which serves the No. 1 market in the Pacific Northwest.
1924 - Hearst acquires the Albany Times Union, the leading
newspaper in New York's Capital Region.
1925 - Town & Country magazine is acquired.
1928 - Hearst acquires WISN-AM, the first of many radio
stations.
1929 - Hearst Metrotone News, the legendary newsreel production
company, is launched.
1934 - House Beautiful magazine is acquired.
1948 - Hearst acquires one of the country's first television
stations, WBAL-TV, Baltimore. In 1952, the station becomes among
the first to broadcast in color.
1955 - Hearst acquires WISN-TV, Milwaukee.
1958 - Hearst acquires Popular Mechanics, the original
men's service magazine, and launches WTAE- TV, Pittsburgh.
1965 - Helen Gurley Brown is named editor of Cosmopolitan,
revising the magazine's focus from fiction to editorial of interest
to young women.
1978 - Hearst launches Country Living, widely regarded
as one of the most successful magazine start- ups.
1982 - Hearst acquires Communications Data Services, the
magazine subscription fulfillment company; KMBC-TV, Kansas City;
and Redbook, the magazine for young working mothers.
1984 - After several years of development, Hearst becomes
a founding partner in both the A&E and Lifetime Television
cable networks. Hearst acquires Diversion, the magazine for physicians
at leisure, and a group of Texas newspapers including The Beaumont
Enterprise and the Laredo Morning Times.
1986 - Hearst acquires Esquire, the distinguished men's
magazine, and Boston's WCVB-TV, widely recognized as "the
best station in the nation."
1987 - Hearst celebrates its centennial year; sponsors
the PBS series "The Presidency and the Constitution";
acquires the Houston Chronicle , one of the largest newspapers
in the Southwest; and acquires Cowles and North America Syndicates,
which are consolidated into King Features Syndicate.
1989 - Hearst acquires Phoenix Entertainment Group, a
television production company, which is renamed Hearst Entertainment.
Following the international launches of several Hearst magazines,
Hearst Magazines International is formed to further the company's
publishing opportunities worldwide. Hearst Entertainment &
Syndication is formed to oversee the company's activities in
cable television, syndication and entertainment.
1991 - Hearst acquires a 20 percent interest in ESPN Inc
1992 - Hearst and Dow Jones & Co. launch SmartMoney,
known as The Wall Street Journal Magazine of Personal Business.
Hearst and MediaOne launch New England Cable News, which today
is the largest regional news channel in the United States.
1993 - Hearst launches Country Living GARDENER magazine
and acquires the San Antonio Express-News, one of the largest
newspapers in Texas. Hearst Interactive Media is created to guide
the company's growing interests in digital media.
1994 - Hearst and France's Marie Claire Album launch the
U.S. edition of Marie Claire magazine. Hearst acquires Associated
Publishing Company, a publisher of yellow-pages directories in
Texas.
1995 - Hearst acquires the operating assets of the Houston
Post newspaper, which are consolidated into the Houston Chronicle.
1996 - Hearst acquires WMOR-TV, Tampa, and begins operation
of KCWE-TV, Kansas City, under a local marketing agreement. The
Company acquires Multilex, a supplier of drug point-of-care databases
in the United Kingdom, which is consolidated into First DataBank.
1997- Hearst purchases WPBF-TV, West Palm Beach, and enters
into an agreement with Argyle Television to combine Hearst stations
with Argyle stations to form Hearst-Argyle Television Inc., a
publicly traded company. Hearst remains a private corporation
and is the majority shareholder in Hearst-Argyle.
1999 - Hearst announces plans to purchase the San Francisco
Chronicle , putting the San Francisco Examiner up for sale. A
new major operating group, Hearst Business Media, is formed to
consolidate operations in business-to-business media. CosmoGIRL!
, a spin-off of Cosmopolitan targeted at teenage girls, becomes
Hearst's first cross-platform launch, with the magazine and Web
site debuting simultaneously.
2000 - O, The Oprah Magazine, a venture with Oprah Winfrey's
Harpo Entertainment Group, is the most successful magazine launch
in Hearst history. Hearst and Condé Nast Publications
enter into an agreement to own jointly a newsstand distribution
and marketing company, COMAG Marketing Group.
2001 - Hearst-Argyle Television acquires WMUR-TV, Manchester,
N.H. Women.com Networks is acquired by iVillage Inc., creating
the world's largest and most comprehensive destination for women
on the Web. Hearst retains an approximately 30 percent stake
in iVillage.
2002 - Hearst acquires Veranda magazine, an upscale shelter
title. The first international edition of O, The Oprah Magazine
launches in South Africa. Cosmopolitan Television launches across
Spanish-speaking Latin America.
2003 - New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg joins The Hearst
Corporation in breaking ground on its new world headquarters
at 300 West 57th Street, Manhattan. Hearst purchases Seventeen
magazine. Town & Country launches first-ever spin-off title,
Town & Country TRAVEL.
2004 - Periodical Publishers' Service Bureau, Inc. acquires
American Publishers, Inc. Hearst-Argyle Television purchases
WMTW-TV, Portland, Maine. Hearst Business Media acquires Zynx
Health Incorporated, one of the leading U.S. providers of evidence-based
clinical content to health care organizations. Hearst agrees
to purchase White Directory Publishers, Inc., the fourth-largest
yellow-pages publisher in the United States. Working with the
American Land Conservancy and the California Rangeland Trust,
the Company agreed to preserve the historic 82,000-acre Hearst
Ranch in a conservation framework that restricts new commercial
and residential development, protects resources and increases
access to 18 miles of pristine California coastline.
2006 - The company officially opened the Hearst Tower, its new headquarters building on 57th Street.
2011 - Hearst Corporation completes U.S. portion and majority of its overall acquisition of Lagardère SCA’s nearly 100 magazines in 14 countries outside of France.
Updated December 21, 2013
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