Beth Buehler has been named vice president of operations for Hearst, a new role at the company. The announcement was made by Hearst President and CEO Steven R. Swartz and Hearst Chief Operating Officer Mark Aldam. Buehler will report to Aldam.

The News Media Alliance has elected Terry Kroeger, president and CEO of BH Media Group, a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, as its chairman of the Board of Directors. Kroeger, who previously served as vice chairman, succeeds Michael Klingensmith, publisher and CEO of Star Tribune. Klingensmith will serve as past chair.

Link below includes 3-minute video clip.

The importance of the newsroom and of newspapers publishing engaging, relevant, local news was emphasized again and again by media executives on the "Investing in Newspapers" panel at the recent Key Executives Mega-Conference.

Over the last 13 years, the newspaper industry has lost more than 1,400 newspapers in the U.S. to closures, mergers and the downsizing of smaller free-standing newspapers that have become editions of larger regional ones, said Penelope Muse Abernathy, Knight Chair, Digital Media Economics, School of Media and Journalism at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

"We've lost more than 1,000 newspapers," she said, "but the decline in circulation has been even more dramatic. It's been halved. Total print circulation – that includes all weeklies and dailies – has declined from 117 million to 67 million, the biggest drop coming in dailies."

She said, "The average print circulation of a daily newspaper in 2018 is 20,000. Since 2004, more than a third of all newspapers have changed hands and about half of them have changed hands two times or more."

When calculcated based on the number of newspapers (not on the circulation of those papers), she said the top 25 companies own a third of the nation's newspapers and control about 50 percent of print circulation.

Three of those companies – Adams Publishing Group, Hearst and AIM Media Management – were among the conference panelists.

Three longtime Hearst executives have been elected executive vice presidents of the corporation: Mark Aldam, who also assumes the title of chief operating officer; Rich Malloch, who becomes EVP for Business Media, and Mitch Scherzer, who adds EVP to his existing title of chief financial officer.

Hearst Newspapers has announced that two members of the group's executive leadership team will be taking on expanded roles. Mike DeLuca, Hearst Newspapers senior vice president of digital and chief executive officer of LocalEdge, has been promoted to executive vice president of advertising sales. John McKeon, Houston Chronicle president and publisher, will become Hearst Newspapers executive vice president and Texas Newspapers president.

Bridget Williams has been named senior vice president, strategy and operations for Hearst Newspapers Digital Media. The announcement was made by Hearst Newspapers President Mark Aldam and Hearst Newspapers Digital Media President Robertson Barrett, to whom Williams will report.

In the new role, Williams will focus on growing direct and programmatic sales efforts and new revenue streams across Hearst Newspapers' stable of properties. In the past year, Hearst Newspapers has made several strategic acquisitions of local community newspapers, bringing quality digital reporting to new markets.

David Ho has been named vice president and executive editor, digital audience and news innovation, for Hearst Newspapers. The announcement was made by Hearst Newspapers President Mark Aldam and Hearst Newspapers Digital Media President Robertson Barrett, to whom Ho will report.

Hearst has acquired the Houston Community Newspapers & Media Group from 1013 Star Communications. The announcement was made by Hearst President and CEO Steven R. Swartz and Hearst Newspapers President Mark Aldam. Dirks, Van Essen & Murray represented Hearst in the sale.