Hearst Corporation Retirement Plan

Hearst Corporation Retirement Plan

The Hearst Corporation Retirement Plan is the defined-benefit pension vehicle for employees of Hearst Communications, the privately held media giant whose holdings span newspapers, magazines, television stations, and business information services. Mitchell Scherzer, Hearst's CFO, carries fiduciary responsibility for the plan's investment strategy, while William R. Hearst III chairs the corporate board that ultimately sponsors it. The plan sits within a conglomerate that has remained family-controlled since William Randolph Hearst founded it in 1887, making it one of the oldest continuous corporate pensions in American media. The plan allocates primarily to commercial real estate through a mix of direct co-investments and commingled funds. Confirmed commitments include positions in Tishman Speyer Real Estate Venture VII, AG Realty Fund VII, and CB Richard Ellis Strategic Partners US Value 5 — all commercial vehicles anchored in New York City. The plan also holds a stake in HGI Opportunity Fund I, a mixed-use vehicle focused on Norfolk, Virginia, and Beartooth Capital I, a land-focused fund based in Bozeman, Montana. Hearst Western Properties, the corporate real estate arm, shares executive oversight with the pension investment team, creating an unusual overlap where the plan co-invests alongside its parent's operating real estate division. Team size and total deployment figures are not publicly disclosed. The plan does not appear to operate as a standalone entity with a dedicated investment staff; instead, it leverages the existing treasury and finance infrastructure of Hearst Corporation under Scherzer's purview. This structure is common among private corporate pensions that sit inside larger operating companies rather than functioning as independent plan sponsors with their own boards and CIOs. Hearst's unusual dual role — as both a corporate sponsor and a real estate operator through Hearst Western Properties — sets this plan apart from most private pensions. Where a typical corporate plan hires external consultants to build a diversified real assets portfolio, Hearst can seed its pension in deals it already has under development, collapsing the typical principal-agent gap. The Hearst Foundations, the company's philanthropic arm, operate entirely separately and do not commingle assets with retirement plan funds.