Heath Owens wore many hats with the East Tennessean. He was an arts & entertainment reporter during spring 2014, news reporter fall 2014, features editor and designer fall 2015-spring 2016 and managing editor fall 2016. He graduated from ETSU in 2016 with a degree from the Department of Media and Communication, where he concentrated in journalism and advertising/public relations.
Now, Heath works in New York City for Hearst Magazines as executive assistant to the chief content officer. His responsibilities include: Managing the chief content officer’s operations (schedule, appointments, travel, expenses, employee on-boarding) and special projects (editorial operations, events, internal communications) for Hearst’s 30+ magazine brands.
He landed this job because he had worked with Food Network Magazine, a Hearst brand, for 2 1/2 years as an assistant to the publisher. Before that, he had interned with another Hearst magazine, Good Housekeeping. He said his current role is “the opportunity of a lifetime.”
We asked Heath how the East Tennessean prepared him for his role at Hearst.
Q: What do you enjoy about your job?
A: I get oversight of the magazine brands that I grew up reading and loving. Hearst brands span all verticals – fashion, food, travel, home, etc. – and I get to be involved in all of them. My colleagues are editors and business leaders at the top tier of the media industry. I am able to pitch in with projects that cross multiple brands and mediums – print, digital, social, data, advertising, marketing and experiential.
Q: How did the East Tennessean prepare you for your current role?
A: I was able to do a little bit of everything at the East Tennessean – writing, editing, designing, managing projects – all of which I still do every single day at Hearst. The ET provided a space to work on multiple projects at once across various teams, which really diversified my experience.
