Hearst CEO Bullish On ESPN

Steve Swartz

Hearst, the privately held company that owns TV stations, magazines and newspapers, and has a 50 percent in A+E Networks and a minority stake in ESPN, will have earned record revenue and profit in 2015, according to a letter set to go to employees on Monday.

Revenue grew 6 percent to $10.7 billion, according to the letter from CEO Steve Swartz.

Hearst also has assets in the auto-marketing, healthcare and financial industries, though Swartz says in his letter that "television in all its forms remains by far Hearst's biggest business."

According to The Hollywood Reporter,  he boasted that ESPN and A+E Networks "delivered profit growth in a tougher year for their industry, and our broadcast TV group achieved record revenue in a year without elections or Olympic Games."

The company's print assets include Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping and Elle magazines, as well as the San Francisco Chronicle and Houston Chronicle newspapers. Its TV stations include WCVB-TV in Boston, KETV in Omaha, Neb., WBAL-TV in Baltimore and several more.

In his letter, Swartz also notes a big push into new media and efforts to attract millennials, like its partnership in a new cable channel called VICELAND, to be produced by VICE, and the launch of FYI, a lifestyle channel aimed at young, upscale people.

Variety reports Swartz emphasized his faith in ESPN maintaining its primacy in the digital future, calling the sports powerhouse “the most unique asset in television.” He sought to dispense with the criticism that has swirled in recent months. “No traditional media brand has been able to transfer its leadership position in the new streaming, digital world better than ESPN. Sports rights have gotten more expensive and cord cutting and cord shaving have caused modest losses in the number of ESPN households, however, we are confident that this brand and this team have many years of strong revenue and profit growth ahead of them, as there simply is no substitute for ESPN,” Swartz wrote.