Hearst-Argyle Television Directors Elected at Annual Shareholders' Meeting

NEW YORK, May 4 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Hearst-Argyle Television, Inc. announced that shareholders elected one Class II Series A nominee and four Class II Series B nominees to the Board of Directors for a two-year term.

The Series A director, David Pulver, has been a director of Hearst-Argyle Television and a predecessor company, Argyle Television, Inc., since 1994. Mr. Pulver is President of Cornerstone Capital Inc., a private investment firm.

The Series B directors are: David J. Barrett, President and CEO of Hearst- Argyle Television, Inc., who has served as a director of Hearst-Argyle Television since 1997; Ken J. Elkins, a former director of Pulitzer, Inc. and, before that, President and CEO of Pulitzer Broadcasting, and a Hearst-Argyle director since 1999; Victor F. Ganzi, President and CEO of Hearst Corporation and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Hearst-Argyle Television and a Hearst-Argyle Television director since 1997; and William R. Hearst III, a partner in the venture capital firm Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield and Byers and a Hearst-Argyle Television director since 1997.

Shareholders also ratified the appointment by the Hearst-Argyle Board of Directors' Audit Committee of Deloitte & Touche LLP to serve as the Company's independent auditors for 2007. Shareholders also approved a long term incentive compensation plan for officers and other key employees, and rejected a shareholder proposal.

The deadline for stockholder proposals to be presented at the 2008 Annual Meeting is December 4, 2007, as noted in the Company's Proxy Statement dated April 3, 2007.

At a meeting of the Board of Directors subsequent to the Annual Shareholders' Meeting, which was held yesterday, the Directors declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.07 per share on its Series A and Series B Common Stock. The dividend is payable on July 15, 2007 to shareholders of record at the close of business on July 5, 2007.

In his comments during the shareholders' meeting, Barrett paid tribute to Michael Pulitzer, who is retiring from the Board of Directors. "We've benefited enormously from his experience and from his wisdom," Barrett said.

Barrett also noted the Hearst-Argyle television and radio stations' accumulation of the nation's highest awards for electronic journalism - for both on-air and online reporting -- since the Company went public in August 1997. The honors have included a national Emmy for investigative reporting; two Society of Environmental Journalists Awards; three George Foster Peabody Awards, from the University of Georgia; four Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Journalism Awards; four Sigma Delta Chi Awards from the Society of Professional Journalists; nine Walter Cronkite Awards for excellence in television political journalism, from the University of Southern California; 19 national Edward R. Murrow Awards, from the Radio-Television News Directors Association; 79 National Headliner Awards, from the Press Club of Atlantic City; and more than 100 regional Edward R. Murrow Awards. For public-service efforts, Hearst-Argyle stations have been recognized with an Ad Council Silver Bell Award and 10 National Association of Broadcasters Education Foundation (NABEF) Service to America Awards. "Our citizenship, our focus on news leadership and the strong ratings, revenue and bottom-line performance of so many of our stations have defined success for our Company," Barrett said.

In reviewing the Company's financial performance during this time, Barrett noted that the Company's net revenue in 1997 was approximately $333 million and was approximately $785 million in 2006, with cumulative net revenue during the period of approximately $6.5 billion and cumulative net income of approximately $717 million. He also noted the Company's cumulative return of cash to stakeholders, including approximately $74 million in common stock dividends, paid from 2004 through 2006, and more than $110 million in share repurchases. He also discussed Hearst-Argyle's substantial acquisitions, investments and capital expenditures, including digital TV expenditures and investment in IT infrastructure to position Hearst-Argyle for the future, all while the Company maintained a healthy balance sheet that has earned investment-grade credit status.

In discussing Hearst-Argyle's investment in the digital-TV transition, which is scheduled for industrywide completion by February 2009, Barrett said, "Hi-def TV delivers a stunning viewer experience and I believe it truly enhances the value proposition for our medium."

Citing the achievements of the Hearst-Argyle stations, Barrett added, "All of this has been accomplished through a period of remarkable and profound change for our industry. We're taking these new challenges and meeting the imperatives of change every day ... with a commitment to lead the way into the next generation of television and digital media. We're living that next generation of TV right now, serving our viewers, advertisers and communities on-air, online and on-demand with a broad array of new-media products while still providing better-than-ever local journalism and local service.

"We're doing things today that were unimaginable 10 years ago," Barrett continued, "We're getting better at it every day, and I'm convinced the best is yet to come."

A replay of the audio webcast of the meeting is available at the Company's Website, http://www.hearstargyle.com/, in the Investor Relations section.

Hearst-Argyle Television, Inc. owns 26 television stations, and manages an additional three television and two radio stations, in geographically diverse U.S. markets. The Company's television stations reach approximately 18% of U.S. TV households, making it one of America's largest television station groups. Hearst-Argyle owns 12 ABC-affiliated stations, and manages an additional ABC station owned by Hearst Corporation, and is the largest ABC affiliate group. The Company also owns 10 NBC affiliates, and is the second- largest NBC affiliate owner, and owns two CBS affiliates. Also, Hearst-Argyle owns more than 30 websites and operates more than a dozen digital weather channels. Hearst Corporation owns approximately 74% of Hearst-Argyle's total outstanding common stock. Hearst-Argyle Series A Common Stock trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "HTV." HTV debt is rated investment grade by Moody's (Baa3), Standard & Poor's (BBB-) and Fitch (BBB-), each with a stable outlook.

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This news release includes forward-looking statements. We base these forward-looking statements on our current expectations and projections about future events. These forward looking statements generally can be identified by the use of statements that include phrases such as "anticipate", "will", "may", "likely", "plan", "believe", "expect", "intend", "project", "forecast" or other such similar words and/or phrases. For these statements, the Company claims the protection of the safe harbor for forward-looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The forward-looking statements contained in this news release, concerning, among other things, trends and projections involving revenue, income, earnings, cash flow, liquidity, operating expenses, assets, liabilities, capital expenditures, dividends and capital structure, involve risks and uncertainties, and are subject to change based on various important factors. Those factors include the impact on our operations from:

-- Changes in Federal regulation of broadcasting, including changes in Federal communications laws or regulations; -- Local regulatory actions and conditions in the areas in which our stations operate; -- Competition in the broadcast television markets we serve; -- Our ability to obtain quality programming for our television stations; -- Successful integration of television stations we acquire; -- Pricing fluctuations in local and national advertising; -- Changes in national and regional economies; -- Our ability to service and refinance our outstanding debt; -- Changes in advertising trends and our advertisers' financial condition; and -- Volatility in programming costs, industry consolidation, technological developments, and major world events.

These and other matters may cause actual results to differ from those we describe. We undertake no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.