Hearst has poached Forbes.com President Mike Smith to head up revenue and operations for its digital media division, The Post has learned.
The pressure is on Hearst Magazines to wring more revenue from the digital side this year.
Last year, the privately held Hearst had full-year digital ad revenue of just $58.86 million, down from $60.2 million in 2011, according to numbers obtained by The Post.
In 2012, one industry source who claimed to have knowledge of the Hearst numbers said its full year digital ad revenue was just $58.86 million—essentially flat with 2011 if Hachette Filipacchi numbers were calculated as if the Hearst had owned it for the full year.
Hearst declined to release any actual numbers but insisted its digital ad revenue growth was up 15 percent in 2012.
Earlier this year, Hearst Magazine President David Carey hired Troy Young to be its new digital chief as president of Hearst Magazines Digital Media.
Young had been the CEO of Say Media until he was bumped aside by former Time magazine president Kim Kelleher last year.
As vice president, revenue platforms and operations, Smith will report to Young, who is heading a division with about 175 people.
Hearst also boosted two insiders. Mike Dushane, formerly vice president of product development at Hearst’s Carandriver.com, was named vice president, product development for digital media.
On the tech side, it named James Welsh, co-founder of Hearst’s Digital Spy in Britain, to oversee global technology architecture for magazines.
Young said the division is trying to adopt “a more collaborative approach.”
Although Hearst eventually reached its goal of selling one million tablet subscriptions last year — believed to be an industry high-water mark — it was several months behind its original plan.
“The challenge with digital is that you have multiple revenue streams,” said Young. “The company is off to a great start with 63 million unique monthly visitors but we need to continue to evolve.”
The company was calling for the division to average about 70 million unique visitors a month for the full year, according to documents obtained by the Post.
kkelly@nypost.com