NEWS

CANDY ALTMAN TO RETIRE FROM ROLE AS VICE PRESIDENT, NEWS AT HEARST TELEVISION

One of TV Journalism’s Most Accomplished Executives Caps 35 Years at Hearst Television

NEW YORK, NY, March 5, 2018 – Candy Altman, whose stewardship of Hearst Television’s coverage of politics has helped the company earn a Peabody Award and nine consecutive USC Annenberg Walter Cronkite Awards, will retire this June from her role as the company’s vice president, news. The move caps a 35-year career at Hearst.

“Candy has been an important architect and voice of Hearst Television’s industry-leading news brand and commitment to community service,” said Hearst Television President Jordan Wertlieb, in making the announcement. “Her leadership in the formation of our award-winning Commitment initiative set an industry benchmark for political coverage by local television groups; her vision and dedication to investigative journalism have positioned Hearst stations as trusted destinations for viewers seeking accountability from their community leaders. More recently, her efforts in helping launch Hearst Television’s State of Addiction project to address the nation’s opioid crisis have exemplified her contributions to the important and nationally recognized work of local TV journalism.”

Altman became Hearst Television’s vice president, news in 2001, working with the news departments of the company’s stations around the country and coordinating their political coverage. In the years since, the station group’s political-news coverage earned a singular set of honors: It received the prestigious Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Political Journalism, granted biannually by the Norman Lear Center of the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication, each year the award has been given out since 2001; and it received a George Foster Peabody Award for coverage of the 2008 elections. The accumulation of these and various regional honors has positioned Hearst Television among the most recognized news organizations at the local and national levels for political journalism. Also during this time, Altman, in collaboration with other station groups, led the establishment of a Producer Academy to help develop the next generation of TV journalists; the project helped to train more than 300 news producers and emerging TV news leaders.

“Candy may be most proud professionally of the lives she’s touched and the news leaders she’s helped to develop,” said Barbara Maushard, Hearst Television senior vice president, news. “Whether she’s executing on internal training programs for young journalists or lending her talents to various industry organizations, Candy placed great value on mentoring the future leaders of our industry. She also implemented our successful producer fellowship program – named for our mentor Fred Young, Hearst Television’s retired senior vice president, news, with whom she worked for most of her Candy Altman to Retire from Hearst TV …

career. It’s no surprise that one of the first things Candy will do after she ‘retires’ is teach journalism leadership at Boston University in the fall.”

From 1993 to 2000, Altman served as vice president and news director at Hearst’s WCVB-TV, Boston, overseeing a 100-person news staff and guiding the planning and direction of the station’s overall news coverage at a time when the station won a Peabody as well as two national Edward R. Murrow Awards for Overall Excellence from the Radio and Television News Directors Association, among numerous other honors. She joined WCVB in 1983 as executive producer of the station's 11p.m. newscast, rising quickly through the ranks and serving as WCVB’s Political Unit director for the 1992 election campaign period.

Altman joined WCVB from WPRI-TV in Providence, Rhode Island, where she was executive news producer. From 1979 to 1981, she held a variety of news-production positions at WPLG-TV in Miami. She began her career as a reporter at KOMU-TV in Columbia, Missouri, where she later became an associate news producer.

Altman has served as vice president of the Associated Press Broadcast Advisory Board, as a member of the National Advisory Board of the Poynter Institute, and as president of the ABC News Affiliate Advisory Board. She has served on the boards of several local charities including The Massachusetts 9/11 Fund and The Kids Clothes Club. She is a Trustee of the A-Plus Scholarship Fund at WCVB.

Altman graduated from the State University of New York at Cortland in 1977 and received a master’s degree in journalism in 1978 from the Missouri School of Journalism at the University of Missouri. She and her husband Joe Bergantino, co-founder of the New England Center for Investigative Reporting and formerly an ABC News correspondent and investigative reporter for WBZ-TV, reside in the Boston suburb of Brookline. Their daughter, Cara Bergantino, is a music educator in Newton, Massachusetts.

About Hearst Television Hearst Television owns and operates television and radio stations serving 26 media markets across 39 states reaching over 21 million U.S. television households. Through its partnership with nearly all of the major networks, Hearst Television distributes national content over nearly 70 video channels including programming from ABC, NBC, CBS, CW, MY Net, MeTV, This TV, Estrella and more. The radio stations are leaders in Baltimore news/talk and rock music listenership. Hearst Television is recognized as one of the industry's premier companies, and has been honored with numerous awards for distinguished journalism, industry innovation, and community service. Hearst Television is a wholly owned subsidiary of Hearst.

Contact:

Tom Campo Campo Communications, LLC (646) 202-2557 [email protected]

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