Television - HEARST

Michael J. Hayes was promoted to senior vice president of Hearst and president of Hearst Television in May 2023. He came to the New York corporate office in 2013 after two decades of success in numerous station leadership positions as a senior vice president and group head with operational oversight over a portfolio of Hearst Television markets. Subsequently he moved into the role of executive vice president in 2017 and deputy group head and chief operating officer in January 2022.

As a Hearst Television station executive, Hayes served as president and general manager at WTAE-TV, the ABC affiliate in Pittsburgh, beginning in March 2011. During his tenure at WTAE, Hayes led a rejuvenation of the station in all areas of operation, enhancing sales and community service initiatives while launching the newsmagazine Chronicle and expanding newscasts — returning Channel 4 Action News to first place in morning and late news time periods.

Prior to moving to WTAE, for eight years, Hayes was president and general manager of Hearst’s WYFF-TV, the NBC affiliate in the Greenville-Spartanburg, South Carolina, television market, and one of the leading stations in the Southeast. During his tenure there, the station was honored with a Peabody Award, as well as a National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Service to America Award; a Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) National Edward R. Murrow Award; 44 Southeast Regional Emmy awards, including two for Overall Excellence and three for Best Newscast; and four consecutive South Carolina Station of the Year awards from the South Carolina Broadcasters Association.

Hayes spent seven years as general sales manager of WLWT-TV, Hearst’s NBC affiliate in Cincinnati, after serving in several sales and management positions across the country, including St. Louis, Grand Rapids, Austin and Peoria. He began his broadcast television career as a sportscaster and producer at WISH-TV — at the time, the CBS affiliate in Indianapolis.

A graduate of Indiana University Bloomington, Hayes holds a bachelor’s degree in telecommunications. Named a Distinguished Alumni in 2022, he serves as a board member of the Indiana University Media School. Additionally, he participated in two executive-development programs facilitated by Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management: Hayes is a graduate of the Hearst Management Institute and, separately, was selected as an NAB Professional to train at Kellogg; he also has participated in NAB’s Broadcast Leadership Training program.

Among various industry and civic activities, Hayes is a past chairman of the ABC Television Affiliates board of governors. He previously served as a director of the Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters and was the first chairman asked and elected to a second term of the South Carolina Broadcasters Association, which in 2022 inducted him into its Hall of Fame. Hayes is also a past chairman of the Greater Greenville Chamber of Commerce and served as vice chairman of the United Way of Greenville County and the Urban League of the Upstate before departing for Pittsburgh.

Ashley Gold is executive vice president and group head of Hearst Television, sharing management oversight of the Hearst Television portfolio of television and radio stations.

Gold, who was promoted to her current position in September 2021, joined Hearst Television in 2017 as vice president, sales, from KRON-TV in San Francisco, CA. At KRON she served for nearly three years, most recently in the dual role of vice president/general manager of both KRON-TV and KOIN-TV, Portland, OR; while there, she oversaw the launch of a primetime KRON newscast. She previously served for more than a decade with WDCW-TV in Washington, D.C., which she joined as a local account executive, later becoming the station’s national sales manager, then general sales manager and, ultimately, vice president/general manager in 2010 — remaining there until August 2014 before moving to KRON. She began her broadcast career with WIHT Radio in Rockville, MD.

A native of Pittsburgh, PA, Gold graduated from the University of Maryland with bachelor’s degrees in marketing and international business, and she is also a graduate of the National Association of Broadcasters Leadership Training Program.

Gold is a member of the CBS Affiliates Board; she serves as a scout for HearstLab, which provides cash investment and support services to early-stage, women-led startups, and as an executive sponsor of Hearst Television’s Women’s employee resource group. She is a former board member of the California Broadcasters Association, the Society for Television, Advertising & Radio in the Bay Area and the Maryland, DC, Delaware Broadcasters Association.

Eric Meyrowitz was named executive vice president and group head of Hearst Television in 2021, with operational oversight over a portfolio of Hearst Television markets.

Meyrowitz previously was senior vice president, sales, since 2017. He joined Hearst Television as vice president, sales in 2014; the move marked a return to Hearst for Meyrowitz, who served as national sales manager for WBAL-TV, Baltimore, between 1997 and 2000. Before returning to Hearst, he was vice president and general manager of WPIX-TV, New York, where he helped create and launch the station’s first 5 p.m. newscast, as well as New York’s first Health and Wellness Expo. Before WPIX, Meyrowitz was vice president and general manager of WDCW-TV, the CW affiliate in Washington, D.C. He began his television sales career as an analyst and, later, account executive at HRP, now a unit of Cox Reps.

Meyrowitz, twice listed in Washington Life magazine’s annual Most Influential Washington Leaders Under 40, has served numerous community-service organizations, including So Others Might Eat and the Pleasantville (NY) Cottage School. He is chair of the NBC Affiliates Board and treasurer of the Television Bureau of Advertising (TVB). He previously served on the Nielsen Local Media Alliance as well as on the board of the International Radio & Television Society. He earned his bachelor’s degree, cum laude, from Boston University.

Nicholas Radziul is executive vice president of Hearst Television. Radziul, previously senior vice president of distribution and government affairs for Hearst Television, has overseen the company's partnerships with networks as well as traditional and digital video platforms. Since 2019, he has represented Hearst Television in Washington, D.C.

In his current role, Radziul has oversight of a portion of the company's portfolio of stations, joining Executive Vice Presidents Ashley Gold and Eric Meyrowitz and Vice President, New England, Kyle Grimes, managing operations of the group. He continues to supervise the company's government affairs and its distribution relationships.

Radziul joined Hearst Television in 2016 as vice president, distribution after holding positions at CBS and Cablevision. With his 2019 promotion to senior vice president, distribution and government affairs, he added government relations to his previous responsibilities for the company's distribution rights agreements, including network affiliations, retransmission consent transactions and program-syndicated agreements.

Prior to his work in the media industry, Radziul was a mergers and acquisitions attorney. Before earning his law degree from Georgetown University, he served as an intelligence officer in the U.S. Air Force, which included work at the Pentagon.

Radziul is a graduate of the Hearst Management Institute, facilitated by Northwestern University, and has served on the National Association of Broadcasters Television Board of Directors since 2021. He is the vice chairman of the ABC Television Affiliates Association Board of Governors and is an executive sponsor of Hearst Television's Family Employee Resource Group.

John J. Drain is the chief financial officer of Hearst Television, a position to which he was appointed in 2016. Previously, beginning in 2010, he served as senior vice president, finance.

Prior to joining Hearst Television, Drain served as the senior vice president of finance and administration for Comcast Spotlight, the advertising sales division of Comcast Cable Corporation. While at Spotlight, Drain led all finance, human resources and legal operations and served as a key contributor to Spotlight’s expansion of market interconnects, strategic acquisitions and joint venture investments. Before joining Comcast Spotlight in 2002, Drain gained extensive experience in media and broadcasting while serving in senior executive financial positions with USA.Net, Sporting News Radio Network, New World Television and Hughes Broadcasting Partners.

Drain began his career at Coopers & Lybrand, and he is a certified public accountant. He holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Nazareth College of Rochester and a master’s degree from Pace University. Drain is a graduate of the Center for Creative Leadership executive leadership program and is chairman of the board of trustees of Nazareth University. Drain has been named regularly to Radio+Television Business report’s list of broadcasting’s “Best Finance Leaders.”

Roger Keating joined Hearst Television in 2008 as senior vice president, overseeing the company’s growing digital media unit – bringing a broad background in various sectors of the media industry.

Keating has run large cable TV operations at Comcast and, subsequently, at Time Warner. He ran the voice services business at AOL and also ran the AOL Health and AOL Travel verticals. He led the formation of Comcast’s internet division in the mid-1990s and oversaw the development of its high-speed data business. In 1998, he founded and was CEO of Zatso, a company that worked with media companies to offer streaming video-based personalized newscasts.

After graduating from Notre Dame with an industrial engineering degree, Keating began his career as an efficiency expert, working in factories and distribution facilities. After obtaining a master’s degree in business from Stanford, Keating worked as a strategy consultant at Mercer Management Consulting, serving clients in disparate industries ranging from jet fighters to bakeries.
 

Katherine Barnett was promoted in 2019 to senior vice president of human resources for Hearst Television after having served as vice president of human resources for Hearst Television since June 2013. She joined the company in 2012 as senior director of human resources. She oversees the company’s efforts in the areas of recruiting, personnel management and employee relations, and has significantly expanded the company’s efforts in the areas of diversity and military recruitment.

Previously, Barnett served as human resources director for the Institute for Systems Biology. Before that, she served for more than four years as human resources manager for Hearst’s Seattle Post-Intelligencer and as acting HR manager for Hearst Seattle Media (Seattlepi.com). Prior to her work in Seattle, she served for more than nine years as a human resources specialist for Hearst’s Houston Chronicle and, previously, as program coordinator for the YMCA of downtown Houston.

Among numerous volunteer activities, Barnett is the Board Chair for the Emma Bowen Foundation. She previously served on the boards of C2HR (Content & Connectivity Human Resources) and the Seattle Society for Human Resource Management, and in Houston as a Young Life leader.

Barnett holds a bachelor’s degree in kinesiology from Texas A&M University and a senior professional in human resources certification from the Human Resource Certification Institute.

Andrew Fitzgerald is senior vice president of streaming video services for Hearst Television and general manager of the company’s rapidly growing Very Local digital-content unit, of which he was the architect.

Hearst Television launched Very Local in September 2021 to provide streaming access to local news and new original non-scripted programming in its more than two dozen local markets. Under Fitzgerald’s leadership, Very Local has expanded its program selection and distribution substantially; its titles are now available on nearly every streaming platform, and its localized FAST channels are available via multiple aggregators. The app features more than a dozen new original unscripted shows, including regional Emmy award winners encompassing a variety of program genres.

Fitzgerald joined Hearst Television in 2017 as chief digital content officer, responsible for digital initiatives locally and centrally. He launched dedicated social video brands highlighting local stories from around the Hearst Television footprint. He also led initiatives in branded video content and local digital lifestyle storytelling. Prior to Hearst, Fitzgerald served with Twitter for more than five years, including roles building the global team responsible for Moments and overseeing Twitter’s relationships with U.S. news organizations. In previous roles, Fitzgerald helped to launch the social media show The Stream for Al Jazeera English and led the citizen journalism program Collective Journalism for the short-form documentary network Current TV.

Fitzgerald is a cum laude graduate of the University of Southern California, where he was both a Renaissance Scholar and a Presidential Scholarship recipient.

Stefan Hadl was promoted in 2022 to Hearst Television’s senior vice president, broadcast engineering & technology; he had served since June 2019 as Hearst Television’s vice president of engineering.

As vice president of engineering, Hadl led a team that helped navigate the operation of Hearst TV stations through the pandemic both on premises and with a remote workforce, launched more than 40 additional digital multicast channels across the company’s station footprint, and drove Hearst Television’s participation in the nationwide rollout of next-generation television – aka NextGen TV – launching stations in 14 of the company’s top-20 markets with the new technology. Hadl helped create an engineering fellowship, named for Marty Faubell, his predecessor as vice president of engineering, to attract fresh talent to the industry.

Hadl is a member of numerous key industry organizations and groups, including the Advanced Television Systems Committee, Inc. (ATSC), the international, non-profit organization developing voluntary standards for digital television; the National Association of Broadcasters Technology Committee; the Pearl consortium of television broadcasters helping advance NextGen TV; the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers; and the Society of Broadcast Engineers.

Hadl joined Hearst Television in 1995 as a broadcast engineer at KCRA-TV, and later became engineering supervisor and assistant chief engineer at KCRA/KQCA. After subsequently serving as director of engineering at Hearst’s WMUR-TV in Manchester, NH, he returned to KCRA-KQCA as director of engineering. In 2015, Hadl became director of engineering and operations of Hearst Television’s WCVB-TV in Boston. Prior to his 2019 promotion to vice president, he was director of engineering, eastern region, overseeing engineering operations of 14 Hearst TV stations and the company’s Baltimore radio stations.

Hadl began his career in broadcast engineering while in the United States Air Force, earning his discharge as a Television Equipment Specialist NCOIC (Level 7) at Los Angeles AFB. He holds an AS degree in electronic systems technology from USAF Community College / Chapman University and is a graduate of the Airman Leadership School and the Non-Commissioned Officer (NCO) Leadership School. Hadl has twice been named to Radio+Television Business Report’s list of broadcasting’s “Top Tech Leaders."

Barbara Maushard is Hearst Television’s senior vice president and chief content officer, news. She was named senior vice president, news, in 2016, after having served since 2008 as vice president, news. She sets strategy for Hearst Television’s news operations and has management oversight of the corporate-level news team.

Under Maushard’s stewardship, Hearst Television stations have consistently earned television journalism’s highest national honors — including ten consecutive Walter Cronkite Awards for Excellence in TV Political Journalism from the USC Annenberg School, dozens of National Edward R. Murrow Awards, National Headliner Awards and a prestigious National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Service to America Award.

Maushard has also spearheaded multifaceted, groupwide, extended journalism and community outreach projects — most recently with “Forecasting Our Future,” an initiative using the combined resources of more than 100 meteorologists around the country to explore the impact of weather and climate on local communities. Additional projects have included “State of Addiction,” addressing the nation’s opioid crises, and Project CommUNITY, exploring the nation’s divisions region by region — which helped earn Hearst Television a Broadcasting & Cable magazine 2019 Station Group of the Year honor; the publication also noted that “the stations were their usual local powerhouses in news and community affairs.”

In 2020 Maushard was recognized with one of television journalism’s highest individual honors: the First Amendment Leadership Award from the Radio Television Digital News Foundation (RTDNF). The award “is presented to a business, government or other leader who has made a significant contribution to the protection of the First Amendment and freedom of the press.” In 2024 she was among the honorees in the Multichannel News Wonder Women New York City awards recognizing excellence among women leaders in media businesses.

Maushard has worked at four Hearst stations since 1997, serving as news director at three of them: KHBS/KHOG (Fort Smith/Fayetteville, Arkansas), WISN (Milwaukee, Wisconsin) and WESH (Orlando, Florida). Under her news stewardship, WISN-TV launched seven and a half hours of local news programming and was honored with both a George Foster Peabody Award and a National Edward R. Murrow Award, among other honors. Maushard joined the company at KMBC-TV in Kansas City, Missouri, where she was part of a team that won a Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) award. She began her career at WHOI in her hometown of Peoria, Illinois, later working at WCMH, Columbus, Ohio and WMAR, Baltimore, Maryland.

Among other industry roles, Maushard has served on the boards of NBC News Channel and the Kneeland Project for Responsible Journalism. She also served on the board of the Library of American Broadcasting Foundation and was vice-chair of the ABC News Directors Advisory Board. She is a member of the Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) and currently serves on the news leadership council for the Trust Project, an international consortium of news organizations working to help consumers identify trusted sources of news, and on Hearst Television’s Women Employee Resource Group.

Maushard graduated with a degree in Broadcast Journalism from Bradley University in Peoria.

Michael Rosellini is senior vice president, digital services, for Hearst Television. He was promoted to the position in 2023 after having served since 2013 as the company’s vice president, digital operations. 

Rosellini supervises a team developing products and overseeing engineering, data and operational responsibilities for the company’s station-branded local news sites and mobile apps, as well as its Very Local streaming apps and related FAST channels.

Rosellini has overseen multiple end-to-end redesigns to keep Hearst Television’s digital products current on new platforms, numerous CMS migrations and continuously evolving digital video, data and ad tech stacks. Among other accomplishments, his team designed, built and launched a complete suite of OTT/CTV apps to power Hearst Television’s push into streaming under the Very Local brand. He has also been instrumental in representing the company’s digital-media interests within industry organizations, including the National Association of Broadcasters and the Pearl TV consortium of U.S. TV broadcast companies pursuing various industry innovations such as NextGen TV.

Hearst Television recruited Rosellini in 2008 as director of digital product development; in this initial role, he began the build-out of Hearst Television’s first in-house software engineering team, which executed an extensive CMS migration and redesign of the Hearst Television websites and mobile applications. Previously, Rosellini managed projects for CBSNews.com, working on website and CMS feature development and early video streaming efforts.

Rosellini’s deep background in local media began with internships in the newsrooms of WNYT-TV and WGY-AM in his hometown market of Albany, New York; he later worked part-time at Washington, D.C., stations WMAL-AM and WRC-TV while studying broadcast journalism at American University. After graduating, Rosellini produced and edited content for WNBC-TV’s website before he moved fully into digital media tech at CBS Interactive.

Rosellini is a Certified Change Agent for Hearst Television’s parent company — Hearst’s conscious-inclusion training program called Include — and attended the Hearst Management Institute

Joe Addalia was promoted to vice president, broadcast technology in December 2022 after having served as Hearst Television’s director of technology projects.  In his newest role, he has expanded responsibilities focused on the discovery, sourcing, and implementation of new technologies applicable to the company’s television operations.

Addalia, a versatile broadcast engineering veteran of nearly four decades, joined Hearst Television in 2006 with the company’s acquisition from Emmis Communications of WKCF-TV in Orlando, Florida, where he remains based. His responsibilities have included broadcast-related technology for the company’s operations, including playout, news systems, asset management, and NextGenTV (ATSC 3.0), as well as interactive and second-screen TV and multicasting.  He also has served as Hearst Television’s representative on various industry technology committees.

Before joining Hearst Television, Addalia was Emmis Communications’ corporate director of engineering technology, responsible for researching and pinpointing technology for the company’s 16 television and 25 radio stations, among other duties.  Previously he was corporate director of engineering for New Jersey-based broadcaster Press Communications LLC, where he designed and constructed the studio and transmission facilities for WKCF, which Emmis purchased from Press Communications in 1999, as well as the group’s radio facilities located in New Jersey and Florida.  He “signed on” WKCF in 1988 as the station’s chief engineer.

Addalia holds an Associate in Applied Science Degree in Television and is an SBE Certified Broadcast Engineer and an active Member of SBE Chapter 42 in Central Florida as well as an SMPTE Florida Section Manager. In 2016 he was honored as a recipient of the Technology Leadership Award from Broadcasting & Cable magazine.

Tracy A. Clark was promoted from Hearst Television's senior director of finance to vice president of compensation in December 2021, based at the company's New York City headquarters.

A finance veteran of more than three decades at Hearst Television, Clark joined Hearst Television's corporate finance team led by Stanley Herriott, vice president of finance, in 2019. Her focus has been on managing Hearst Television's compensation practices, improving financial reporting workflows, and supporting station-related finance and operational activities. Before her corporate role, Clark served for eight years as the company's west region director of finance. She previously served for 20 years as controller of KCRA-TV and KQCA-TV, the company's NBC and MyNetworkTV stations serving the Sacramento/Stockton/Modesto, California, TV market.

Clark has served on the board of directors of the Media Financial Management Association (MFM), and she currently serves on the board's Advisory Committee as well as co-chair of the MFM Television Network. She also serves on Hearst Television’s Pride (LGBTQ+) Employee Resource Group. 

Clark holds a bachelor's in accounting from California State University at Sacramento and is a certified public accountant.
 

Shannon K. Coggins joined Hearst Television in 2022 as vice president of programming, based at the company’s New York City headquarters. In this role, she oversees programming for the 35 Hearst television stations across 27 markets and 39 states, through partnerships with nearly all major networks including ABC, NBC, CBS, CW, MyNet, Estrella, MeTV and others. She also has oversight of the acquisition of syndicated programming, sports programming and multicast channels across the Hearst Television footprint.

Prior to joining Hearst, Coggins spent 18 years at NBCUniversal, making her way from an NBC Page to various domestic and international marketing roles, as well as affiliate relations, special projects and finally as vice president of syndication sales. She got her career start at The Walt Disney Company as a marketing associate in the consumer products division. She is a member of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and the New York State Broadcasters Association, and holds a bachelor’s degree in political studies, with a minor in media studies, from Pitzer College in Claremont, California.

Kyle I. Grimes is president and general manager of WCVB-TV, Hearst Television’s flagship station and Boston’s ABC affiliate, and Hearst Television vice president of New England. Kyle became the fifth president and general manager in WCVB-TV’s long and storied history in 2020, and in 2023 he also assumed oversight of all Hearst Television stations in the New England region. Kyle’s move to the top role at the country’s most honored local commercial television station and oversight of Hearst’s New England stations marks the advancement of a career spent entirely, and spanning more than two decades, with Hearst Television. 

In his role as Hearst Television Vice President, New England, Kyle is charged with overseeing market-leading stations including WMTW-TV and WPXT-TV, the ABC and CW affiliates serving Portland-Auburn, Maine; WMUR-TV, the ABC affiliate in Manchester, New Hampshire; and WPTZ-TV and WNNE-TV, the NBC and CW affiliates serving the Plattsburgh, New York, and Burlington, Vermont, television markets, in addition to WCVB-TV in Boston.

Kyle joined WCVB from Hearst Television’s leading station WGAL-TV in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Under his leadership, WGAL-TV added more than seven hours of local news per week as well as a weekly local public affairs show. During his tenure, the station earned regional Emmy Awards for Best Newscast as well as regional Associated Press honors including Outstanding News Operation and Best Newscast. Among other innovations, Kyle oversaw the establishment of the WGAL 8 Hall of Fame to honor leaders who have made important contributions to the station during its 70-year history, and the development of a public/private partnership with Millersville University to preserve the station’s film archive.

The station’s commitment to community service helped WGAL-TV earn several national industry honors including finalist status for the National Association of Broadcasters’ 2019 Service to America Award. Through telethons and other efforts, WGAL-TV has raised millions of dollars for various organizations including the American Red Cross; the Children’s Miracle Network; and the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank to aid families during the 2020 pandemic.

Prior to taking the reins at WGAL-TV, Kyle served as president and general manager of WPTZ-TV and WNNE-TV. During his time there, the station received a national Edward R. Murrow Award for a series investigating Vermont's Department of Children and Family Services, and two regional Murrow Awards for their nationally followed reporting on the prison escape of convicted murderers in Dannemora, New York. It was the second tour in the market for Kyle, who served as the stations’ news director from 2005 to 2008. In between his two positions at WPTZ-TV and WNNE-TV, he was news director at WPBF-TV, the Hearst ABC affiliate serving West Palm Beach, Florida.

Kyle serves on the board of local business and industry associations including the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce and the Massachusetts Broadcasters Association. His unwavering track record of community service continues at the helm of WCVB-TV as a board member of the United Way of Massachusetts Bay, as well as involvement in various other local charitable organizations. While at WGAL-TV, Kyle served on the board of the Pennsylvania Association of Broadcasters and was a member of the Pennsylvania Bar/Press Committee. He also served on the boards of United Way of Lancaster County and the American Red Cross Central Pennsylvania Chapter, as well as on the advisory board of Children’s Miracle Network and the board of trustees of Susquehanna Waldorf School.

Kyle began his career at Hearst’s California television properties, entering broadcast television at Hearst’s KSBW-TV, the news leader serving the Monterey/Salinas TV market, later becoming a newscast producer at Hearst’s KCRA-TV/KQCA-TV, Sacramento’s longtime recognized news leader. He holds a bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism from the Newhouse School at Syracuse University.

Kristin Hansen was promoted in 2021 to vice president of human resources for Hearst Television after having served as director of human resources since her hire in 2016.  As part of the human resources team, she is responsible for supporting the company’s recruiting, employee relations and retention efforts and is passionate about employee development.

Previously, Hansen worked for CDS Global, a Des Moines-based subsidiary of Hearst Television’s parent company Hearst. She began her career at CDS in 1995 in account management and moved up in various functions before transitioning to training and employee relations. She was appointed to workforce director in 2007 and chief workforce officer in 2010.

Hansen holds a Bachelor of Arts in sociology from the University of Iowa and a master’s degree in adult learning and organizational development as well as a Master of Business Administration from Drake University; she also holds a professional in human resources certification from the Human Resources Certification Institute. She serves on the board of C2HR (Content & Connectivity Human Resources) and has served on the advisory board of Paragon IT Professionals and on the Volunteer Engagement Cabinet for the United Way of Central Iowa.

Paige Harrison is vice president, news at Hearst Television. She was appointed to this position in June 2021. 

Previously, Harrison served as the news director of Hearst Television’s flagship station and perennial TV news leader WCVB-TV, Boston since 2017. While there, she managed all operations of the news department, which produces more than 45 hours of newscasts weekly, including breaking news, weather and sports, special coverage, the station’s 5 Investigates series, NewsCenter 5 Primetime specials and all of the station’s digital and social media news initiatives. In her four years leading the unit, WCVB-TV’s news department earned dozens of awards for journalism and community service, including regional Emmy Awards, regional Edward R. Murrow Awards, National Headliner Awards, a Gracie Award and a Gabriel Award — frequently earning “Station of the Year” honors and often sweeping the regional competition.

In Harrison’s more than two decades with Hearst, she has served within news operations for five Hearst Television stations across the country. Before joining WCVB-TV, she was the news director at WPBF-TV, Hearst Television’s ABC affiliate serving the West Palm Beach, Florida, TV market. She also worked in news management positions at WESH-TV in Orlando, Florida, KOCO-TV in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and WTAE-TV in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

A Michigan native, Harrison was raised in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in Canada and began her television career there as a producer and director. She has also worked in Toronto, Ottawa, and Barrie, Ontario.
 

Stanley Herriott joined Hearst Television in 2019 as Vice President of Finance, bringing more than 20 years of related experience.

Prior to joining Hearst Television, Herriott served in multiple roles for Univision Communications Inc, including Director of Internal Audit, Director of Shared Services and most recently as the Vice President of Finance for Local Media – in which role he oversaw finance for local media markets in the Eastern half of the country with responsibility for, among other things, budgeting, financial planning and analysis, and providing support to General Managers on strategic initiatives. At Univision, he was a trusted business partner to the local media operators responsible for station operations.

Herriott was also instrumental in the creation of Univision’s finance shared services center which he led for more than four years. He helped launch Univision’s internal audit group and played a key role in the implementation of Oracle financials. 

Prior to Univision, Herriott worked for seven years for Arthur Andersen, where he was an audit manager in the Metro New York Technology, Media and Communications Group. Herriott serves on the board of the Media Financial Management Association. He holds a Bachelor’s in Business Administration from Montclair State University and is a Certified Public Accountant. 

Gerry McGavick is vice president of sales at Hearst Television. He was promoted to the position in 2023 after serving since 2021 as corporate director of sales.

McGavick has led revenue-generation efforts across the company’s television platforms and served as Hearst Television’s primary liaison with the agency community, national sales representation firms and other sales partners.  Since 2018, he has supervised political advertising sales directly.  

McGavick has also overseen the company’s Sales Account Associate program, a year-long initiative during which trainees work with the local advertising sales teams in each of the company’s markets with the objective of advancing to become sales account executives.  

McGavick has been a fixture in the Hearst Television New England region for much of the past two decades serving as general sales manager and director of sales at WMUR-TV, the company’s ABC affiliate in Manchester, New Hampshire, before moving to his corporate role in 2021. McGavick began his advertising career as a media planner at ad agency Jordan McGrath Case & Taylor, moving to the New York-based ad-sales representation firm Harrington Righter & Parsons. He later became general sales manager of Boston station WLVI-TV before continuing his career at WMUR-TV. McGavick is a second-generation Hearst Television sales executive; his father served as general sales manager and director of sales at WCVB-TV from 1972 to 1984.

In addition, McGavick served on the New Hampshire Association of Broadcasters board and was chairman from 2015 to 2017.  He also served on the board of Drug Free New Hampshire. In his hometown of Acton, Massachusetts, he led the local Pop Warner football program as president and was awarded the town’s Volunteer of the Year award.   He holds a bachelor’s degree in communications from Stonehill College, where he was underwriting director of the college radio station, WSHL-FM, and captain of the football team.

Alex Mejía is Vice President of Budget & Financial Planning for Hearst Television, with key responsibilities in the areas of financial planning, reporting, and analysis.  Before his December 2024 promotion to his current position, he was the company’s Senior Director of Financial Planning and Analysis, among other duties helping guide the company’s annual operating and capital budget processes and playing a key role in annual long-range planning.

Mejía first joined Hearst Television in 2008 as Senior Financial Analyst, serving in that role for three years before moving to Polo Ralph Lauren for three years, most recently as Senior Manager, Finance.  He returned to Hearst Television 2015 as Manager, Financial Planning & Analysis.  He began his media-finance career in 2004 at People Magazine, rising to the role of Senior Financial Analyst.

In 2022, Mejía was recognized by Media Financial Managers as one of the media industry’s “People to Watch.”  He is a graduate of the company’s executive-development program, the Hearst Management Institute, and has participated as a mentor in the Hearst Television Mentorship program.  He is also active in Hearst Television’s Employee Resource Groups, and currently serves as an executive sponsor for Comunidad.  Additionally, he has acted as a supervisor for Hearst Television’s Emma Bowen Foundation Fellows and T. Howard Foundation Associates.

Mejía holds a Bachelor of Business Administration degree from Baruch College.

Ernesto (Ernie) Mourelo is Hearst Television’s vice president of digital news. He was promoted to the position in 2021 after serving as senior director of digital content.

Mourelo leads the digital content and strategy efforts for Hearst Television’s local TV news websites, as well as Hearst Television’s central news team, which publishes national and feature news content; produces original short-form and long-form video for distribution on TV, digital and OTT; and manages the company’s copy desk, archival and eCommerce efforts, as well as newsroom AI initiatives.

Mourelo moved to Hearst Television’s New York headquarters in 2012 as executive digital media manager of editorial operations, where he was tasked with coordinating the efforts of the digital media resources at the company’s TV stations. Shortly after, he was promoted to director of digital content. He previously served as director of digital media at Hearst Television’s WLWT-TV, the NBC affiliate serving Cincinnati, Ohio.

Before joining Hearst at WLWT-TV, Mourelo was assistant news director at KVEA-TV, Telemundo’s flagship TV station in Los Angeles, where he oversaw Spanish language TV and digital content production for KVEA and then-sister station KWHY-TV. Previously, he was a producer and later, executive producer at San Diego’s KNSD-TV, and a producer and video editor at KKTV-TV in Colorado Springs. He holds a bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism from the University of Southern California.

Among other industry associations, Mourelo currently serves on the Board of Directors for NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ Journalists and the Library of American Broadcast Foundation. He is also an active member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and the Online News Association. He also serves on Hearst Television’s Pride (LGBTQ+) Employee Resource Group.

Kenneth Murphy, a Hearst technology executive for more than two decades who most recently has served as Hearst’s executive director of network architecture and engineering, was named vice president of information technology for Hearst Television in July 2023.

Murphy is responsible for helping lead all of Hearst Television’s technological initiatives with a focus on IT security as well as the planning, design and implementation of the company’s next-generation IT networking infrastructure to support all operations relative to connectivity, storage, data and video transport and distribution. He also helps lead strategic planning relative to and deployment of cloud resources and technology with the goal of making operations more efficient.

Murphy has risen through the ranks in Hearst’s technology operations, moving from network engineer in 2005 to manager of network engineering; associate director of network engineering; and director of networking before assuming his most recent role. Among his accomplishments, as executive director of network architecture and engineering, he led an initiative to standardize Hearst’s network security, achieving a first-ever companywide unification of network security platforms. Murphy also directed the research, development and implementation of a modern SD-WAN platform and transformed Hearst’s network data capabilities while helping enable new business connectivity opportunities. Further, he led an initiative to identify and isolate at-risk networks to better prepare for cyber threats and developed and managed a team of network engineers responsible for implementing enterprise-wide IT infrastructure.

Murphy holds a Bachelor of Science, summa cum laude, in Information Systems, with concentration in Internetworking Technologies, from Strayer University in Charlotte, N.C. He participated in a Hearst Technical Leadership Program administered by Cornell University as well as the Hearst Leadership Development Program administered by Harvard Business Publishing. He was an inaugural recipient of Hearst’s Neil McManus Award in recognition of customer service, dedication, professional excellence and team leadership as well as earning U.S. Air Force medals for good conduct, outstanding service and meritorious service.

Preman Narayanan, a veteran of some of the leading companies in targeted television advertising, joined Hearst Television in 2022 as vice president of ad operations and information services, a new position at the company. He is based at the company’s Charlotte, North Carolina, office.

Narayanan oversees Hearst Television's linear and digital advertising operations and business operations departments and helps set the strategic direction of the company's advertising technology and information systems.

Before joining Hearst Television, Narayanan served since 2013 at Effectv, based in Philadelphia, most recently as vice president of IT and technical operations. Among other roles there, he oversaw the implementation of advanced advertising solutions for Effectv's large Southern Division. Before Effectv, he was director of technology and operations for the Midwest and Southwest regions at Time Warner Cable Media. Before that, he was associate director – corporate strategy and U-verse TV advertising for AT&T. He also served in key productdevelopment positions for EchoStar Broadband LLC and SkyStream Networks. He began his career at ASTRO All Asia Networks in Kuala Lumpur in his native Malaysia.

Narayanan holds a bachelor’s in electrical engineering from Malaysia’s University of Technology and participated in the SCT/ISBE Leadership Program at Dartmouth University’s Tuck School of Business.

Russ Nelligan, since 2006 the creative services director at WCVB-TV, Hearst Television’s flagship station and Boston’s ABC affiliate, was promoted in 2025 to vice president, marketing, for the company.

During Nelligan’s 19 years leading the station’s creative services team, WCVB further solidified its market leadership in news viewership, community service and industry recognition. Nelligan earned 11 regional Emmy Awards for his marketing work there.

Nelligan began his television career as a photographer at WICZ-TV in Binghamton, New York, where he previously served as an intern while earning his bachelor’s at Binghamton University.  He moved to WPTZ-TV, today Hearst Television’s NBC affiliate serving the Plattsburgh, NY/ Burlington, VT, television market, initially as a news photographer, later becoming a commercial producer and then promotion manager for both WPTZ and then-WPTZ sister station and market FOX affiliate WFFF-TV.  He was later promoted to creative services director at WPTZ and subsequently moved to WBAL-TV, Hearst Television’s market-leading NBC affiliate in Baltimore, as assistant creative services director, later earning the promotion to creative services director before moving to WCVB in Boston.

Nelligan served on the ABC Television Marketing Advisory Board, eventually becoming chair, concluding his service as ex-officio in 2024.   He has served on the Board of Governors, including as First Vice President, for the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, Boston/New England Chapter.
 

John Robertson is Hearst Television’s vice president of distribution. He was promoted to the position in 2021 after serving since 2018 as the company’s senior director of finance.

Among other duties, Robertson supervises negotiations with digital-first video distributors and platforms, working in tandem with Nick Radziul, Hearst Television’s senior vice president of distribution and government affairs. In addition, he works with John Drain, Hearst Television’s senior vice president and chief financial officer, on merger and acquisition projects and strategic initiatives. 

In collaboration with Hearst Television’s engineering team, Robertson also oversees the implementation of various applications related to Hearst’s testing and rollout of the emerging ATSC 3.0, or “next-gen TV,” standard, which eventually will enable TV broadcasters to realize dramatically strengthened picture-and-sound quality, bi-directional transmission capability and potential ancillary revenue streams. Robertson serves as Hearst Television’s representative on the board of Pearl TV, a consortium of several of the largest broadcast TV companies working to advance ATSC 3.0. In his most recent position, Robertson played a key role on the team, handling various aspects of Hearst Television’s distribution agreements and its ATSC 3.0 rollout. 

Robertson joined the company as manager of finance in 2011. Previously, Robertson was a certified public accountant working as a senior associate at PricewaterhouseCoopers, where he consulted various companies including Hearst Television on finance and accounting matters. He received a bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of Scranton and a Juris Doctor from Fordham University School of Law.

Kevin Stuart, who in 2012 began serving as Hearst Television’s corporate research director, was promoted in 2016 to the new position of vice president, research. He oversees audience analysis and research across Hearst Television stations. Prior to his positions in New York, Stuart served in senior research positions at Hearst’s four Florida TV stations starting in 1997 at WESH-TV and WKCF-TV, the NBC and CW affiliates, respectively, in Orlando. He also worked with WPBF-TV, the ABC affiliate in West Palm Beach and WMOR-TV, an independent station in Tampa.

Before joining Hearst, Stuart was director of research as well as a weathercaster at WKBW-TV in Buffalo. Before that, he was an account executive at WBRE-TV serving Wilkes-Barre and surrounding markets in Northeastern Pennsylvania. He began his television career at KATC-TV in Lafayette, Louisiana. Before that, he worked in radio as an on-air host and music director at Lafayette station KXKW and as a news reporter for KANE in his hometown of New Iberia, Louisiana, where he began his broadcasting career in 1983. Stuart also worked as a senior research consultant for the Franco Research Group.

Stuart serves as chair of the National Association of Broadcasters’ Committee on Local Television Audience Measurement (COLTAM). In December 2024 he was appointed Chair of the Board of Directors of the Media Rating Council (MRC), previously serving as Chair of the MRC’s Television Committee, and is a member of MRC’s various auditing committees. He is also a member of the Nielsen Policy Guidelines Committee.

Stuart is a cum laude graduate of the University of Louisiana at Lafayette with a degree in finance.

Jonathan D. Sumber is Hearst Television's vice president of digital sales. He was promoted to the position in 2013, after serving since 2011 as director of digital sales. Sumber works closely with station sales as well as corporate teams in overseeing Hearst Television's digital revenue. This encompasses both digital ad product development and fulfillment, and sales management/leadership.

Before joining Hearst, Sumber was part of the digital leadership team at Media Networks, Inc. (MNI), where he was responsible for sales training, product/partnership development and operational management of MNI’s Digital Media Group — a unit specializing in locally targeted media for national and regional brands. Previously, he developed and sold digital marketing solutions for Gannett newspapers. Sumber holds a bachelor’s degree from the State University of New York at Albany.