By Matt Chaban 3/05 12:16pm

Green Thumbs

Stylish and sensible. (Dream Life NY)

Good House Keeping! Hearst Tower Achieves Highest Green Building Rating, LEED Platinum

One of the challenges of green buildings is making sure they work. You can buy the fanciest air conditioners, install the most efficient windows, even recycle the toilet water in the drinking fountains, but if building owners do not monitor their energy use, the big-time green investments can be as bad as in conventional buildings.

Hearst knows better. Just as it might tend a photo shoot or test a recipe, the media giant has been tweaking the systems at its Eighth Avenue headquarters since it opened in 2006. Thanks to Heast’s efforts, the 46-story tower—the first LEED Gold building in the city—has earned LEED Platinum status for building maintenance, essentially upgrading the building to the highest level of sustainability practices. Read More

By Kat Stoeffel 1/30 1:06pm

Higher Ed

Helen and David. (Image via Hearst Corp.)

Helen Gurley Brown Donates $30 M. to Columbia and Stanford for Bicoastal Media-Tech Institute

With the help of a $30 M. gift from longtime Cosmopolitan editor Helen Gurley Brown, Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism and Stanford University’s School of Engineering have established the David and Helen Gurley Brown Institute for Media Innovation, the two universities and the Hearst Corporation announced today.

The Institute is inspired by David Brown, Ms. Brown’s late husband, a former journalist, publisher, film and theater producer who graduated from both Stanford and Columbia Journalism School. Read More

By Nitasha Tiku 6/14/11 5:26pm

App Economy

Buddy Media Founder Mike Lazerow

Buddy Media Teaches Hearst the Facebook Way

“The days of, ‘Do we publish on Facebook? Do we tweet?’ are over,” Buddy Media CEO Michael Lazerow told Betabeat. “Either you do it, or you’re crushed. Do it or go out of business.” Hearst Magazines must have got the memo, because its Digital Media unit just announced a partnership today to use Buddy Media’s platform to enhance its presence on Facebook. From its Midtown headquarters, Buddy Media will create “sapplets” (short for social applets) that overlay on the Facebook pages for titles like Cosmopolitan, Seventeen, and Marie Claire.

Sapplets like Buddy Media’s  Interactive “Personality” Boutique, which recommends products based on answers to a personality quiz,  introduce a game-like aspect into the Facebook page and encourage interaction. They also offer a handy new advertising vehicle for Hearst, which is probably why Kristine Welker, Hearst Digital Media’s chief revenue officer, was the point person on the deal. Hearst is further removing friction for potential advertisers by launching multiple brands (13 titles and websites will eventually be involved) at once. That way, if an advertiser wants to reach a certain demographic, they don’t have to negotiate with each magazine individually.

“Instead of doing one-off siloed programs, they’re almost selling it as part of a cable network that lives on top of Facebook,” Mr. Lazerow explained. But why “sapplet”? Did the world really need another word for a widget? “I can’t speak for the world, ” he said sharply. Read More

By Kat Stoeffel 6/13/11 9:22am

The Schmear

tempest

Morning Roundup: O Brave New Media!

That has such monetization strategies in it!

AOL struck a deal with American Express to use Serve, which is AmEx’s competitor to PayPal, on Patch Deals, which is Patch’s competitor to Groupon, according to a press release sent out this morning. And we bet their user-feedback is much more advanced than the originals.

Hearst magazine websites Read More

By Kat Stoeffel 11/18/10 5:37pm

Slideshow

Cathie Black Is Experienced: Teaching Tips from Hearst

In City Hall’s campaign to convince New York City that Cathie Black is fit to run its Department of Education, Mayor Bloomberg’s primary strategy has been to deflect the conversation from Black herself, and explain that detractors just don’t understand what the job is.

“We have a cadre of people who are education experts and Read More