Who Owns the Media: Hearst

Hearst 🐔🐔

Capitulation Rank: Compromising
Category: Broadcasting & Newspapers & Publishing  
Market Cap: Privately held

Under Steve Swartz, Hearst — which owns nearly three-dozen television stations as well as 26 daily and 52 weekly newspapers — is pursuing an aggressive growth strategy under the Trump administration. He told Barrons that the broadcasting giant wants to continue to grow through acquisition.

Doing so in many of the markets where Hearst already owns outlets will likely require a more consolidation-friendly reception at the Trump FCC. And as we’ve already seen during Trump’s second term, the agency often exploits a media company’s growth ambitions to ensure it falls into line with Trump’s political agenda.

Hearst had previously instituted a social-media policy that “bans its employees, including its journalists, from expressing ‘personal political opinions’ online,” including views about Israel’s violence in Gaza. According to a Washington Post report, the policy urged staff to rat out colleagues for making controversial posts, stating that even liking a post could “cause a problem.”

DEI Doublespeak:

Hearst’s website claims a corporate “commitment to our colleagues and customers to invest in DEI initiatives.” Yet in 2023, Truthout reported that Hearst effectively censored employees by instituting a social-media policy banning its newsroom employees from expressing a variety of political opinions online. “Hearst is declaring that our channels for personal expression are company property, even when we’re off the clock,” the Writers Guild of America, East said in a statement protesting the move.

What It Owns:

Hearst owns two radio stations and 35 TV stations in 27 markets. It also owns 23 daily newspapers (including Albany Times Union, Houston Chronicle, New Haven Register, San Antonio Express-News and San Francisco Chronicle); 26 magazines (including Car and Driver, Cosmopolitan, Country Living, ELLE, Esquire, Harper’s BAZAAR, Popular Mechanics, Seventeen and Men’s Health). Its production studios include Hearst Media Production Group and King Features Syndicate.

Money & Influence Game:

Hearst paid lobbyists $520,000 in 2024, and its employees made $192,042 in contributions to political candidates (2024 cycle). Seven of its top-10 recipients of political contributions were Republican candidates and organizations. (SOURCE: Center for Responsive Politics)