Legendary media giant Hearst Corp., with newspapers in southwestern Connecticut and ownership stake in Bristol sports programmer ESPN, promoted former Hartford Courant executive Mark E. Aldam to chief of its newspaper division, effective immediately.
Aldam, 47, had been executive vice president, deputy group head of Hearst Newspapers since March 2010.
Aldam takes over for his boss, Steven R. Swartz, 49, who was named chief operating officer at New York-based Hearst.
“Mark has proved an excellent leader at Hearst Newspapers, working with colleagues across the company on both maintaining editorial excellence and developing new products and media services for our valued business customers,” Hearst CEO Frank Bennack Jr. said.
Hearst Newspapers includes the Albany Times Union in New York, Hearst’s four properties in Fairfield County (Connecticut Post in Bridgeport, The Advocate in Stamford, Greenwich Time and The News-Times in Danbury, in addition to their related weeklies), Michigan’s Huron Daily Tribune and Midland Daily News, and Edwardsville Intelligencer in Illinois.
It has more than 5,000 employees across the nation, publishes 15 dailies and 38 weeklies in cities including The Houston Chronicle, The San Francisco Chronicle, and San Antonio Express-News.
Aldam joined Hearst in 2006 as publisher of the Albany Times Union, where he served for three years. He was formerly senior vice president/chief operating officer of The Courant, which he joined in 1994 as advertising director. He was named senior vice president/chief operating officer in 2005.
Hearst’s major interests include more than 200 magazines around the world, including Good Housekeeping, Cosmopolitan and O, The Oprah Magazine; 29 television stations, which reach a combined 18 percent of U.S. viewers; ownership in leading cable networks, including Lifetime, A&E, History and ESPN; as well as business publishing, including a minority joint venture interest in Fitch Ratings; Internet and marketing services businesses, television production, newspaper features distribution and real estate.
