Steven R. Swartz, President, CEO and Editor-in-Chief of SmartMoney, Named Executive Vice President, Hearst Newspapers

Business Wire, Dec 13, 2000

Business Editors & Lifestyle Writers

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NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 13, 2000

The Hearst Corporation today announced that Steven R. Swartz, 38, has been named executive vice president of Hearst Newspapers, the appointment to be effective Jan. 1, 2001. The announcement was made jointly by Frank A. Bennack, Jr., president and chief executive officer of The Hearst Corporation, and George B. Irish, president of Hearst Newspapers. Swartz will report to Irish and serve as his deputy, joining Irish in the oversight of the company's 12 daily newspapers.

Currently, Swartz is president, CEO and editor-in-chief of SmartMoney, a joint venture between The Hearst Corporation and Dow Jones & Company (NYSE:DJ). The venture publishes SmartMoney magazine and operates its extensive Web service SmartMoney.com. Prior to the launch of SmartMoney in March 1992, Swartz was a page one editor of The Wall Street Journal. From July of 1984 through May 1989, he was a reporter for the Journal in its Philadelphia and New York bureaus, in the latter assignment covering the securities industry.

"Steve Swartz comes to this important post in our newspaper group with extraordinary experience as both businessman and journalist," Bennack said. "George Irish and he will make an outstanding team to oversee our expanding newspaper operations."

Irish has headed the Hearst Newspaper Group since January 1998, when he succeeded Robert J. Danzig upon Danzig's retirement. Swartz will fill the role held by Irish before he was named president of the group.

Under Swartz's leadership, SmartMoney was one of the youngest magazines ever to be named "Magazine of the Year" by Advertising Age. In 1993, SmartMoney was honored with Temple University's Acres of Diamonds Award as the best new magazine. In addition, SmartMoney won 1995 and 1996 National Magazine Awards for service journalism. In the six years the magazine has been eligible, it has been a finalist 11 times for these awards, the industry's highest honors. SmartMoney also was awarded this year's Investment Company Institute award for financial journalism.

"Steve Swartz's eight years as a newspaperman and a similar stint as a highly successful magazine editor and senior executive, along with being a pioneering innovator on the Internet, represents rare and valuable management assets that will serve our newspapers well," Irish said.

In late 1997, Swartz launched SmartMoney.com. For the three consecutive years 1998-2000, the site has received the ICI/American University award for online personal finance journalism. SmartMoney.com was awarded a 1999 Gold Medal in Interactive Design by I.D. magazine, a 1999 Industrial Design Excellence Award from the Industrial Designers Society of America and was a National Magazine Awards finalist in this year's General Excellence in New Media category. SmartMoney's technology unit, which licenses Web applications to other companies, now has about 70 clients including Fidelity, American Express, J.P. Morgan and others.

In April 1999, SmartMoney launched a custom publishing and retirement advisory services business around its acquisition of Retirement Advisors Inc. And in July 1999, SmartMoney launched SmartMoney University, an online tool to teach people about investing, the markets and other aspects of personal finance.

Hearst Newspapers, a unit of The Hearst Corporation, publishes 12 daily newspapers. Hearst's leading newspapers include the Houston Chronicle, the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Antonio Express-News, the Albany Times Union and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. The 12 Hearst daily newspapers each publish online editions. Hearst Newspapers also publishes 14 weekly newspapers in Texas, Michigan and New York; maintains a Washington news bureau; and operates a yellow-pages publishing company serving communities throughout Texas. Hearst Newspapers is part owner of AdOne L.L.C., a premier Internet classifieds company.

The Hearst Corporation (www.hearst.com) is one of the nation's largest diversified communications companies. Its major interests include magazine, newspaper and business publishing, cable networks, television and radio broadcasting, Internet businesses, television production and distribution, newspaper features distribution, and real estate.

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