Hearst Goes Big On Washington

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WASHINGTON, D.C. — Hearst Television is doubling down on its local and regional investigative reporting with a bigger bureau in the Nation’s Capital — a move that brings to fruition “a national investigative unit” devoted to offering its stations’ newscast original stories from the District of Columbia.


It’s a big recommitment to Hearst’s Washington Bureau, established in the 1990s to provide political and other national-news reporting to Hearst Television stations across 26 DMAs.

In charge of the new D.C.-based national investigative unit is veteran TV journalist Mark Albert. He’s been a freelance on-air and multiplatform correspondent for CBS News for the last three years. He’s also worked at TEGNA-owned WUSA-9 in Washington, D.C. and at Hubbard-owned KSTP-5 in Minneapolis-St. Paul.

As Hearst Television’s Chief National Investigative Correspondent, Albert will work on long-form investigative reports and produce day-of investigative insights to breaking news stories working in collaboration with the broadcast- and digital-news teams at the Hearst D.C. bureau and the stations.

Joining Albert at the D.C. Bureau to assist in investigative and political news coverage is Matt Prichard. He has served as a multi-media journalist and anchor at TV stations in Albany, Georgia; and Colorado Springs.

Albert and Prichard start their new roles on Tuesday (6/19).

“Our primary focus has been and will continue to be localism,” said Hearst Television President Jordan Wertlieb. “Increasingly, in this connected world, our viewers look to their trusted news sources to provide national context. Our efforts in Washington will be designed to provide added resonance to the journalism in our local markets. This latest step represents a firm commitment to coordinate and augment at the national level the award-winning investigative efforts our stations have been undertaking for decades at the local and regional levels.”

Hearst Television SVP/News Barbara Maushard added, “This represents an effort to continue our critical daily coverage out of Washington while putting even more effort into uncovering stories behind those headlines — and the big stories happening in our local markets that may have national implications. Mark Albert is a top-notch, deeply experienced investigative journalist, and he and Matt — an impressively multi-talented young reporter — will be valuable additions to our team in D.C. And we have a rich and deep bench of award-winning investigative reporting talent throughout our station group ready to collaborate on big stories.”