NEW YORK – Hearst Corporation announced that Neeraj Khemlani, 38, has been named to the new position of vice president and special assistant to the CEO for digital media, Hearst Corporation. The announcement was made by Frank A. Bennack, Jr., vice chairman and chief executive officer of Hearst Corporation, and is effective March 23. Khemlani, who will report directly to Bennack, will be responsible for promoting and coordinating digital content transformation across the Company.
“Hearst’s major operating groups have all made substantial progress towards our corporate objective of fully participating in the digital transformation,” Bennack said. “The creation of this new position is designed to accelerate the progress through greater cooperation and synergy across divisional lines. Neeraj is uniquely equipped to help me and my colleagues realize that goal.”
Khemlani was formerly vice president and general manager of Yahoo! News & Information as well as Yahoo! Originals. In this position, he managed the business and products of Yahoo! News, Tech, Weather and Education, and the editorial programming for Yahoo! Finance, as executive editor. He also directed original content programming, including product design, content production and sponsorship, across all Yahoo! channels; and initiated and oversaw strategic business development content deals with major media companies.
From 1998 to 2006, Khemlani was a producer for CBS News’ 60 Minutes and 60 Minutes II, and a creative consultant to Imagine Entertainment, ABC Entertainment, from 2000 to 2001, where he advised scriptwriters. His television experience also includes producer positions with Crile Communications and ABC News, where he produced segments for Nightline, Good Morning America, Peter Jennings Reporting and ABC News Specials. Khemlani began his career as a newspaper reporter, stringing for The New York Times and The Post-Standard in Syracuse, N.Y.
“I am delighted to join Hearst Corporation,” Khemlani said. “We are witnessing the reemergence of content and media driving value in the new world and Hearst is uniquely positioned to realize that value across multiple digital platforms and distribution points. Remember, we’re only in the second inning of the Internet. Hearst, with all its assets and investments, expects to take a commanding lead by the seventh-inning stretch.”
Khemlani holds a master’s of science in journalism from Columbia University, where he graduated with honors, and a bachelor’s in communications from Cornell University, where he was the editor-in-chief of The Cornell Daily Sun.
Hearst Corporation (www.hearst.com) is one of the nation’s largest diversified media companies. Its major interests include ownership of 16 daily and 49 weekly newspapers, including the Houston Chronicle, San Francisco Chronicle and Times Union; as well as interests in an additional 43 daily and 72 non-daily newspapers owned by MediaNews Group, which include the Denver Post and Salt Lake Tribune; nearly 200 magazines around the world, including Good Housekeeping, Cosmopolitan and O, The Oprah Magazine; 29 television stations through Hearst-Argyle Television (NYSE:HTV) which reach a combined 18% of U.S. viewers; ownership in leading cable networks, including Lifetime, A&E, History and ESPN; as well as business publishing, including a minority joint venture interest in Fitch Ratings; Internet businesses, television production, newspaper features distribution and real estate.
