Jordan Wertlieb Leads the Charge for Localism

Why This MattersJORDAN WERTLIEB

1986-89: Research analyst, Katz Communications

1989-93: Account executive, Katz Communications

1993-98: National sales manager, WCVB Boston

1998-99: Local sales manager, WCVB

1999-2005: General sales manager, WBAL-TV Baltimore

2003-2005: TVB Sales Advisory Committee

2005-11: President/GM, WBAL-TV

2010: Named Chairman of Maryland/D.C./Delaware State Association

2011-13: Executive Vice President, Hearst Television

2012-14: Chairman, NBC Television Affiliates Board

2013: Admitted to Maryland state Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame President, Hearst Television; Director, Hearst Corporation

2015: Named to A+E Networks board

2017: Vice Chair, Broadcasters Foundation of America; Television Board Chair, National Association of Broadcasters

Jordan Wertlieb's office in New York's Hearst Television headquarters has all the hallmarks of having made it to the big-league C-suite - none better than the wall of windows with a view of Central Park.

But Wertlieb, the station group's president, is very conscious that the Manhattan he peers out at - the skyscraping office buildings and tony apartment towers, the mass of inhabitants below dodging traffic and running in and out of fancy stores - isn't the reason he's in that prime spot on the 39th floor. Nor is it what keeps him there.

Rather, Wertlieb, Broadcasting & Cable's 2017 Broadcaster of the Year, has risen the ranks at Hearst the way the company's executives, at the station and corporate level, typically do: through a steadfast dedication to localism. For Hearst employees that typically involves picking up the family and moving once, maybe even twice or more, for stints at a number of group's 30 stations in 26 markets around the country.

Wertlieb joined Hearst in 1993 as WCVB Boston's national sales manager, eventually working his way up to president and general manager of WBAL Baltimore before making the jump to corporate. But his office contains three very visible reminders of his commitment to localism.

The vibrant, poster-sized photographs, which he explicitly requested when he assumed the group's top job in 2012, show artistic aerial shots of three sports venues: a Stow, Mass., basketball court sitting next to a playground with a floor painted to look like an American flag; a Manchester, N.H., tennis court; and Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium, the now-demolished minor league baseball field in Omaha, Neb., named for the former Omaha mayor (and the grandfather of a woman who currently works in Hearst's financial office).

All three venues are (or were, in the case of Rosenblatt) in communities served by Hearst stations: ABC affiliates WCVB - which covers Stow and Manchester - and KETV in Omaha. (In Omaha, Hearst's decision to turn a downtown train station into a new home for ABC affiliate KETV has helped revive the area.)

I love the color, I love the sports theme and I love the fact that these are our local markets, Wertlieb said during a recent interview.

Given the breadth of his career in local TV, his investment in the communities his stations serve and initiatives since taking the at the helm of Hearst, Wertlieb's commitment to localism - and the integral role broadcasters play in supporting it - is genuine. (We're talking about a guy who, while at WBAL, participated in the station's polar bear plunge, after all.)

Steven Swartz, president and CEO of parent company Hearst Communications, said that commitment shows in Wertlieb's work. Jordan's passion about our commitment to television journalism, our people and the communities that we serve make him the outstanding executive that he is, Swartz said. He has fully assumed his rightful place alongside such Hearst icons as John Conomikes and David Barrett as a leader not only of Hearst Television, but also of the television industry.

Wertlieb's passion for localism - particularly the integral role local journalism plays in bolstering communities -has been at the core of many of the initiatives he has headed, or seen come to fruition, during the last year.

The year for our company has been reaffirmation of the importance of the community service the stations provide, he said.

One of Hearst Television's biggest initiatives has been the group's yearlong commitment to covering, and helping spur recoveries from, the country's opioid crisis. Since the start of the ear, local news operations across all of Hearst's markets have focused on producing robust news stories. Those newsrooms also participated in a national primetime special hosted by journalist Soledad O'Brien, head of Hearst's weekly political show Matter of Fact, that aired across the group in early September.

In New Hampshire, where WCVB reports that roughly 50% of the population knows someone with an opioid addiction, about 5,000 high school students packed a Hearst-organized town hall meeting on the subject. Drug take-backs that Hearst has held in partnership with the Drug Enforcement Agency have yielded tens of thousands of pounds of pills such as Percocet.

Victims and their loved ones have responded - seeking help, sending stories and posting photos.

The way Wertlieb sees it, the magnitude of the epidemic made it incumbent on Hearst to address the crisis in a meaningful way. A serious of events over the last 18 months made that abundantly clear. First, overdoses surpassed auto accidents to become the No. 1 cause of accidental death in this country. Second, and closer to home, a Hearst employee lost her son to an opioid overdose.

It's staggering, Wertlieb said. This is a very unusual situation, and it's touching every community.

Hearst's news teams across the group also galvanized to cover Hurricane Irma, the destructive early September storm that devastated parts of

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