Hearst Connecticut Media Group installs new publisher

Mike DeLuca in May 2017 at the offices of the Times Union in Colonie, N.Y. (Will Waldron/Times Union)

Hearst Corp. named Mike DeLuca as president and group publisher of Hearst Connecticut Media Group, with oversight of eight daily newspapers including the Connecticut Post, New Haven Register and Stamford Advocate, as well as 14 weekly newspapers and four magazines including Connecticut Magazine.

DeLuca will continue to lead the LocalEdge unit of Hearst Media Services providing marketing leads, where he has been CEO since 2013.

In his new role as head of Hearst Connecticut Media Group, DeLuca reports to Jeff Johnson, president of Hearst Newspapers, with DeLuca previously executive vice president of ad sales for Hearst Newspapers which has two-dozen dailies nationally including the Houston Chronicle, the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Antonio Express News and the Times Union covering the Albany, N.Y. region.“Hearst Connecticut Media Group is heavily invested in serving its readers and continuing to grow its business services and reach in this market,” Johnson stated in a press release on Wednesday morning. “Mike’s proven track record as both a media executive and an advertising sales leader, particularly across local markets, will help further our mission to expand news operations in Connecticut, providing the most informative news and entertaining lifestyle content in the region.”

Hearst Connecticut Media is the largest news organization in Connecticut with its main corporate office in Norwalk as a subsidiary of New York City-based Hearst led by CEO Steven Swartz. Other Hearst regional dailies in Connecticut include the Greenwich Time, the Norwalk Hour, the News-Times in Danbury, the Middletown Press and the Register Citizen of Torrington.

DeLuca has a familiarity with Hearst Connecticut Media Group, having helped integrate the New Haven Register into the group after Hearst acquired the newspaper in 2017. He brings a diversity of experiences in revenue management roles at Yahoo, Groupon, the Internet marketing services provider Yodle and the storage computing giant EMC, known today as Dell EMC. He is a graduate of Boston College.

On Wednesday morning, DeLuca told Hearst Connecticut Media Group employees he will bring transparency to the role and expand the ways in which the news organization informs its audience, with a willingness to invest in priorities, try new strategies, and be held accountable for results.

“What we do every single day really has a lasting effect on the communities that we serve,” DeLuca said Wednesday. “We need to leverage technology ... while still staying true to our mission.”

It is the second major new arrival for Hearst Connecticut Media Group in the past year, after the hire last October of Matt DeRienzo as vice president of news and digital content overseeing editorial strategy and content for Hearst Connecticut Media Group.

Days later, Hearst acquired Hersam Acorn Newspapers to expand its town coverage in southwestern Connecticut, with weekly newspapers today including the Wilton Bulletin, Westport News, Darien Times, Fairfield Citizen, New Canaan Advertiser and Greater New Milford Spectrum. And Hearst Connecticut Media has expanded its coverage additionally to include content from the Connecticut Mirror, a nonprofit which covers the intersection of policy, government and politics; and CTNewsJunkie.com.
Alex.Soule@scni.com; 203-842-2545; @casoulman