David Carey
Months after a $200 million acquisition of one of his company’s largest competitors, David Carey has revealed plans to depart Hearst Magazines following eight years at the division’s helm.
Hearst Corp. CEO Steven Swartz informed staffers this morning that Carey will step down as president of Hearst Magazines at the end of 2018, after which he will spend a year as chairman while the company searches for a successor.
Prior to joining Hearst and assuming command of a portfolio containing the likes of Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping, and Esquire, Carey spent several years at Condé Nast, including seven as VP and publisher of The New Yorker. His tenure at Hearst saw the launches of Dr. Oz the Good Life, HGTV Magazine, and The Pioneer Woman, as well as the landmark acquisition of Rodale Inc., which brought in titles like Men’s Health, Women’s Health, and Prevention, among others.
“The magazine business worldwide, like all print media, faces change and challenge, but it’s an industry we’ve led for more than 100 years and we will continue to do so,” wrote Swartz in the memo to staffers. “Under David, we have become a preeminent global digital publishing company while continuing to launch innovative print editions.”
In a company-wide letter issued in December, Carey reported a slight decline for the magazine group in 2017—following four straight years of earnings growth—and vowed to “further expand the perimeter of the Hearst Magazines Group in 2018,” including online, where Hearst’s U.S. brands, combined, average 1.4 billion monthly page views.
“I’m proud of our collective performance during a period of broad media sector change,” Carey added in his own memo Monday. “Thanks to you, we have outperformed our peer set, completed acquisitions large and small, constantly reimagined our print business models, built a highly profitable digital business, launched many new joint ventures, more firmly linked our U.S. and international owned-and-operated units, and further diversified our B2B operating companies.”
Carey added that he has been accepted as a fellow at Harvard University’s Advanced Leadership Initiative, a one-year “cross-University program designed around social impact.”
This is a developing story.
