Ted Hearn, VP of communications for ACA Connects and former Washington bureau chief for Multichannel News, has apparently left the association.
His X (Twitter) handle has changed to one no longer associated with ACAC and he is no longer listed among the staff there.
No word on where Hearn is headed — ACAC execs were not available for comment at deadline — but he was one of the most experienced and respected communications beat reporters when he joined ACA Connects, then the American Cable Association, in March 2009.
Hearn oversaw all communications for the trade group, which represents small and medium-sized independent communications providers.
“He knows the issues, he knows how Washington works, and he knows how to tell people about it,” former ACAC president and CEO Matt Polka said when he hired Hearn away from the journalism pool. Polka said he tapped Hearn because his efforts would be “invaluable to telling the story and unique challenges of independent cable operators and their customers.”
Together Polka and Hearn had an increasingly good story to tell, with ACAC scoring Washington victories on several fronts, including collective programming negotiations.
“Ted’s got an encyclopedic knowledge of the media biz and a virtual Rolodex of reporters who call on him for insight on policy and regulation that’s a mile long,” said Dennis Wharton, former top communications executive at the National Association of Broadcasters, who like Hearn was plucked from the pool of experienced D.C. journalists. “ACA will be hard-pressed to fill Ted’s shoes.”
ACAC executive VP and chief operating officer John Higginbotham declined to comment on Hearn’s departure, or who might be succeeding him, “as a matter of policy.” But he did say that “in the interim,” media inquiries would be going to digital media specialist Nathan Penrod at npenrod@acaconnects.org.
