Hearst-Argyle Television Announces New Management Assignments for Mackin and Biancuzzo

Hearst-Argyle Television Announces New Management Assignments for Mackin and Biancuzzo

NEW YORK and MILWAUKEE, Jan. 29 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Terry Mackin, Executive Vice President of Hearst-Argyle Television, Inc. (NYSE:HTV), who has headed the company's growing digital media group in addition to other duties, will assume full-time responsibility for digital media.

At the same time, Frank Biancuzzo, a former Hearst-Argyle Vice President for Marketing & Promotion who for the past five years has served as President and General Manager of WISN-TV, the Hearst-Argyle Television ABC station in Milwaukee, will return to Hearst-Argyle's New York headquarters as a Senior Vice President/Group Head. In his new role, Biancuzzo and Philip Stolz, also a Hearst-Argyle Senior Vice President/Group Head, will share management oversight of substantially all of the company's 29 television stations.

The new assignments, effective February 1, were announced today by David J. Barrett, president and chief executive officer of Hearst-Argyle Television, Inc.

Biancuzzo's successor at WISN-TV is expected to be announced in the coming weeks.

"Terry and Frank understand the vital role content plays in our company and in the media business," Barrett said. "Terry has been instrumental in shepherding our company, our stations, their content and their brands into the digital age, all while juggling general day-to-day management oversight of a portfolio of stations. Given the growth of our digital media businesses, and our ambitions for future growth, Terry is assuming a full-time role heading up this effort. For the last five years, Frank has led WISN-TV to great success by developing and expanding local content and, in so doing has helped make WISN-TV one of America's top-rated ABC affiliate stations. He'll now work with the other Hearst-Argyle stations as a group executive."

Mackin joined Hearst-Argyle Television as Executive Vice President in May 1999. His oversight of the company's efforts in digital media include programming for digital broadcast spectrum and for digital devices using technologies such as broadband, wireless application protocol, Java for mobile video and other applications.

Before joining Hearst-Argyle, Mackin was president and chief operating officer, based in London, of StoryFirst Communications, Inc., where he was responsible for the design and management of several rapidly growing Russian media properties, including the terrestrial broadcast television network CTC, as well as television stations and a production company. Prior to joining StoryFirst, Mackin was executive vice president, chief operating officer and a director of Ellis Communications, in Atlanta, where he had management responsibility for all aspects of a group of 12 television stations and two radio stations.

Mackin served from March 2002 to April 2006 on the NBC Affiliate Board, most recently as its President-Chairman. He also served as Chairman of the NBC Affiliates' "Futures" committee, in which capacity he was an architect of new-media initiatives and joint ventures between the network and its affiliates, including Weather Plus, launched in October 2004 to provide local weather channels over digital broadcast spectrum; and the NBCOlympics.com websites launched in connection with NBC's carriage of the Athens 2004 and Torino 2006 Olympics. He also serves on the board of Internet Broadcasting, in which Hearst-Argyle holds a 38% equity interest. Mackin holds a bachelor of science degree in communications from Ohio University in Athens, Ohio.

Since Biancuzzo assumed management of WISN-TV in 2002, the station has become America's number one ABC Affiliate in primetime audience delivery for five consecutive years. It also has become one of the country's most honored local news organizations with a prestigious International George Foster Peabody Award, and Edward R. Murrow and AP Best Newscast Awards.

Biancuzzo was, for five years, Hearst-Argyle Television's Vice President, Marketing & Promotion, overseeing the Hearst-Argyle stations' audience promotion, positioning and branding, image development, research and local newscast development. He joined Hearst-Argyle predecessor Hearst Broadcasting, then an operating group of Hearst Corporation, as Director of Promotion & Marketing in 1995. Previously, Biancuzzo served for six years at Frank N. Magid Associates, most recently as vice president, marketing group research and consultation. In overseeing promotion research and consultation services primarily within the television industry, he developed an international clientele and personally consulted to television stations and networks in six countries. Biancuzzo graduated, with honors, with a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, which gave him an Outstanding Alumni Award in 1989.

Hearst-Argyle has expanded its digital media activities significantly in recent months. In addition to adding staff in the areas of digital sales and content-development, the company in January announced a content-sharing agreement with NBC for the recently launched National Broadband Company ("nbbc"). The "network" of local-TV web sites managed by Internet Broadcasting ("IB") serves an average of more than 12 million monthly unique visitors, more than a quarter of which are from the Hearst-Argyle sites, according to Nielsen NetRatings; the IB sites also serve a monthly average of more than 11 million video streams, according to WebTrends. IB has grown from serving 11 million page views in all of 1996 to serving nearly 11 million page views per hour today; it consistently ranks #3, behind MSNBC.com and CNN.com, among video- centric web news-content providers, and among the top 50 of all web "brands", both per Nielsen NetRatings. The Web sites of most Hearst-Argyle stations are typically the top-rated television station sites in their markets. The Hearst-Argyle sites are also at the leading edge in providing wireless application protocol (WAP) content, podcasts, web-based newscasts, web-based video and blogs in a broad cross-section of markets.

Hearst-Argyle's NBC-affiliated stations have launched digital broadcast carriage of Weather Plus, with widespread cable and satellite carriage, while other of the company's stations also have launched digital weather channels.

Hearst-Argyle Television, Inc. owns 26 television stations, and manages an additional three television and two radio stations, in geographically diverse U.S. markets. The Company's television stations reach approximately 18% of U.S. TV households, making it one of America's largest television station groups. Hearst-Argyle owns 12 ABC-affiliated stations, and manages an additional ABC station owned by Hearst Corporation, and is the largest ABC affiliate group. The Company also owns 10 NBC affiliates, and is the second- largest NBC affiliate owner, and owns two CBS affiliates. Hearst-Argyle also is a leader in the convergence of local broadcast television and the Internet through its partnership with Internet Broadcasting (http://www.ibsys.com/), and in the application of digital broadcast spectrum for new local informational services through its Weather Plus partnership with NBC and various NBC affiliate groups. Hearst-Argyle Series A Common Stock trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "HTV." HTV debt is rated investment grade by Moody's (Baa3), Standard & Poor's (BBB-) and Fitch (BBB-), each with a stable outlook. The Company's Web address is www.hearstargyle.com.

This news release includes forward-looking statements. We base these forward-looking statements on our current expectations and projections about future events. These forward looking statements generally can be identified by the use of statements that include phrases such as "anticipate," "will," "may," "likely," "plan," "believe," "expect," "intend," "project," "forecast" or other such similar words and/or phrases. For these statements, the Company claims the protection of the safe harbor for forward-looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release, concerning, among other things, trends and projections involving revenue, income, earnings, cash flow, liquidity, operating expenses, assets, liabilities, capital expenditures, dividends and capital structure, involve risks and uncertainties, and are subject to change based on various important factors. Those factors include the impact on our operations from:

* Changes in Federal regulation of broadcasting, including changes in
Federal communications laws or regulations;
* Local regulatory actions and conditions in the areas in which our
stations operate;
* Competition in the broadcast television markets we serve;
* Our ability to obtain quality programming for our television stations;
* Successful integration of television stations we acquire;
* Pricing fluctuations in local and national advertising;
* Changes in national and regional economies;
* Changes in advertising trends and our advertisers' financial condition;
and
* Volatility in programming costs, industry consolidation, technological
developments, and major world events.

These and other matters may cause actual results to differ from those we describe. We undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Source: Hearst-Argyle Television

CONTACT: Thomas W. Campo of Hearst-Argyle Television, Inc.,
+1-212-887-6827, tcampo@hearst.com

Web site: http://www.hearstargyle.com/

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