For decades, media leaders have debated whether journalism can sustain itself as a standalone business. But in a rapidly evolving landscape, Hearst is offering a different perspective — one outlined in its latest annual letter from CEO Steven Swartz, which makes clear the company’s center of gravity has shifted far beyond traditional media. In a recent conversation on E&P Reports, David Carey, senior vice president of public affairs and communications at Hearst, expanded on that strategy, explaining how the company’s transformation wasn’t reactive, but decades in the making. His insights reveal a model that doesn’t abandon journalism, but strengthens it through broader business innovation.
From media company to media and information company
Carey is clear that Hearst’s evolution is not about replacing journalism but expanding beyond it. “Hearst is a media and information company,” he said, emphasizing that diversification has been part of the company’s DNA long before today’s disruption. “Before it was in vogue and before people started thinking about alternative revenue streams, Hearst has been on this path for decades.”
That long-term mindset traces back to the company’s origins. “Mr. Hearst spoke about the company being alarmingly enterprising,” Carey explained. “The idea that the company for years and years and decades has always found new areas to expand into adjacencies that were relevant.” Rather than viewing new business lines as separate, Hearst treats them as interconnected parts of a larger system.
Importantly, Carey rejects the notion that non-media businesses are simply propping up journalism. “This isn’t one of subsidy,” he said. “This isn’t one of a successful B2B business underwriting, if you will, the consumer media business. This is part of an ecosystem of an organization that is incredibly financially strong.” That ecosystem, he added, “gives the businesses the confidence to take risks” and enables long-term investment across the company.
A diversified model built for resilience
In Carey’s view, diversification is no longer optional — it’s essential. “As you think about what makes a successful company today, you need a lot of revenue streams,” he said, pointing to examples beyond media. “People think of Amazon as making all of its money from the retail operations… but the truth is, Amazon makes its money from AWS… and increasingly from its advertising business.”
That same principle applies to media. “I think it’s true for most organizations,” Carey noted. “You do need exposure to a lot of different revenue streams in order to be successful and confident about the future.”
At Hearst, that diversification has been carefully layered over time. Carey described the company’s headquarters as a metaphor for its strategy. “The base of the building is a six-story building constructed by William Randolph Hearst in the 1920s… Today it’s a 44-story skyscraper.” That contrast, he said, reflects “this traditional base and this kind of gleaming, ambitious future reaching for the sky.”
Yet even as the company evolves, its foundation remains intact. “We’re respectful of the businesses that brought us there,” Carey said. “We’re still in all of them, but we’re always
Journalism remains central to the mission
Despite the shift toward data, software and analytics, Carey insists that journalism remains core to Hearst’s identity. “We are a company that across all of our business units does have a mission orientation,” he said. “The role of local journalism is to… keep local leaders accountable, to serve the communities.”
That commitment extends across platforms. “This is true across our local TV business and beyond,” Carey explained, noting that the mission itself hasn’t changed — only the methods of delivery. “How you engage those audiences in fulfilling your mission changes almost every single day.”
Hearst’s financial strength, he argued, allows it to invest in journalism in ways others cannot. “When we’ve made acquisitions in the newspaper space, the belief is that Hearst would be a good owner because we’ll prioritize the number of journalists that are in the newsroom,” he said. “We will make those investments.”
That ability, he added, is directly tied to diversification. “That is a function of the parent company… engaged in this decades-long diversification that has worked amazingly well.” The result is an organization that can balance mission with sustainability.
AI as a productivity engine, not a replacement
As generative AI reshapes the industry, Carey framed Hearst’s approach as pragmatic rather than disruptive. “We look at this first and foremost as a productivity tool,” he said. “The focus is much more around productivity than using AI to create content.”
Across the company, AI is being applied to improve business operations and newsroom efficiency. “It’s employed from an advertising sales standpoint to qualify clients and leads,” Carey explained. “It’s deployed across our subscription management business… identifying inflection points for individual subscriber relationships.” In the newsroom, it supports reporting rather than replacing it. “It’s employed to help the newsrooms around research, especially around local government filings.”
But Carey was explicit about what AI is not doing. “The businesses are not using AI to… generate most of it via AI,” he said. “We’ve all read about the challenges of that.”
Instead, he sees AI as part of a broader evolution in how work gets done. “If we had to go back to the tools that I had 41 years ago, how inefficient we would be,” Carey reflected. “If we fast forward 10 years from now, people will look at how people spent their day doing their jobs and would find it almost laughable.”
Ultimately, the goal is to empower employees. “We do think across our large base of employees that they can contribute more,” he said, “and they can learn important skills… that they’ll be able to use throughout their careers.”
The need for speed in a startup world
While Hearst is a large, established company, Carey acknowledged that it operates in an environment shaped by startups and rapid innovation. “We are… a big battleship, and we’re surrounded by speedboats of entrepreneurs,” he said. “Every day [they] are looking to create versions of what we do… faster and less expensively.”
That dynamic requires a shift in mindset. “We think a lot about startup mentality,” Carey noted. “We do want a fast pace of innovation… a fast pace of experimentation across the organization.”
Not every initiative will succeed, but failure is part of the process. “Not all of them are going to work,” he said. “But even if they fail, you’ll learn from failure that may open the doors to something more successful.”
The alternative — moving too slowly — poses a far greater risk. “If we’re not [innovating], I can tell you thousands or tens of thousands of small companies… are doing so,” Carey warned. “We’re not going to win… if we’re going to wait for others to innovate first.”
Winning by serving niche audiences
Carey also highlighted the changing dynamics of audience engagement, particularly for magazines and national media. “It is a real fight for consumer time as well as for advertising,” he said, noting that digital platforms now dominate the market. “Google plus Meta plus Amazon… control 83% of all digital advertising, leaving 17% for all intentional publishers.”
At the same time, audience attention has shifted toward individual creators. “The story of the last couple of years has been the ascendancy of these creators and influencers,” he said, citing personalities with followings that rival or exceed traditional media brands.
In response, the winning strategy has flipped. “The old line… is you had to be some things to all people,” Carey explained. “Today, the winning model is you flip that around, and you are all things to some people.”
That means focusing deeply on specific audiences. “You are super-serving an individual niche or passion,” he said. “That gives you authority… that gives you pricing power.” For Carey, success now comes from building strong, engaged communities rather than broad, shallow reach.
Advice for local publishers: know your audience
For local news leaders, Carey offered a simple but powerful principle. “You have to really understand what drives your audience,” he said. “It’s not bringing the tablets down from the mountaintop… it’s really paying attention.”
That understanding varies by market. “Is it local sports? Is it local government?” he asked. In some cases, the answer may be unexpected. “One of our newspaper publishers said… ‘our restaurant coverage.’”
The key is alignment. “You have to understand intimately what really makes your audience tick,” Carey said. “And from there… are you doing a great job of serving that?”
Ultimately, sustainable growth comes from meeting real audience needs. “What does your audience want,” Carey concluded, “and how does that connect back to what we’re trying to do?”
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