Hearst unveils HearstLive at their New York headquarters
On Tuesday night in New York, Hearst, the parent company of WCVB Channel 5, unveiled something unlike anything else in the country.
Forget Times Square, this Manhattan fixture may be America's new town square. From Boston to Buzzfeed, California to Cosmopolitan. Screens around the Hearst Tower in New York City will showcase content from its 360 businesses, networks, websites, magazines and television stations.
"Anything that spurs creativity and excitement and can entertain people at the same time, it's great," Steven Swartz, president and CEO of Hearst, said.
HearstLive wraps around the base of the tower at 57th Street and 8th Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, where more than a quarter-million people walk by every day.
Now, they can interact with a broad range of content which truly is live and updated throughout the day.
Content will include live breaking news from Hearst's 30 television stations across the country.
"Our reporters know what's happening in their local cities better than any other journalists," Jordan Wertlieb, president of Hearst Television, said.
"We've gotten more identification with New York out of this building than being here 100 years, it's amazing," Frank A. Bennack Jr., executive vice chairman of Hearst, said. "So what we're now trying to do is tell the story of the company."
What you won't find on HearstLive are ads.
"It's all curated content," Clinton Kelly of ABC's "The Chew" said. "News and entertainment, sports, the whole shebang, right here where like millions of people pass by every week."
A company founded in the 19th century is embracing its role in the 21st.
"(You) get all the stories and the content we're creating out to a mass audience," Soledad O'Brien, host of "Matter of Fact," said.
All the content available at HearstLive is available on the website Hearstlive.com.