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We’ll Do It Live!

As recent moves by Hearst, The Atlantic, and others show, more and more publishers are triaging declining distribution by selling access, not just information. So who wants to go on a cruise with Nick Thompson?

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Nick Thompson
C.E.O. of ‘The Atlantic,’ Nick Thompson at The Atlantic Festival, 2024. Photo: Tasos Katopodis / Getty Images for The Atlantic
Dylan Byers
July 22, 2026

On Tuesday, Chris Berend, the former chief digital officer of NBC News and alumnus of CNN, Bloomberg, Esquire, and ESPN, announced that he was taking his talents to Hearst Magazines, where he will become chief content and experience officer—a newly created title that seemed designed to telegraph the 139-year-old publisher’s new priorities. In his new gig, I’m told, Chris will be heavily focused on accelerating a burgeoning membership and events strategy for Hearst’s laggard and declining brands, including Cosmopolitan, Elle, Esquire, Harper’s Bazaar, and its myriad titles in the home, health and fitness, and automotive categories.

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