Michael Sebastian leads Esquire from Hearst Tower amid the bustle of print production, blending legacy print elements with digital innovation. At 44, he applies a digital-native background to steward a 92-year-old print publication alongside its digital products. Esquire earned the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing and the National Magazine Award for General Excellence, including recognition for Mark Warren’s story about a small-town pastor’s suicide after exposure of his secret online life. Sebastian prioritizes great storytelling that transcends format and believes heritage brands can thrive by tightly linking print and digital as parts of a brand ecosystem. He joined Esquire eight years ago as digital director after leading digital news operations across 18 Hearst titles and focuses on modernizing operations without losing what made the magazine iconic, while navigating digital innovations including AI to keep the brand culturally relevant.
At 44, the editor in chief of Esquire represents something of a paradox: a digital native who came up through the ranks of online journalism, now stewarding a 92-year-old print publication (and its various digital products) that recently notched the industry's loftiest honors. This spring, Esquire picked up both the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing - awarded to journalist Mark Warren for his article, "Death of a Small-Town Pastor," about a small-town minister and mayor who died by suicide after his secret online life was exposed - and the National Magazine Award for General Excellence.
Sebastian joined Esquire eight years ago as digital director, after running digital news operations for the magazine's parent Hearst Magazines, contributing content to the websites of 18 titles that also include Harper's Bazaar, Cosmopolitan and Town & Country. Yet taking charge of Esquire was a singular challenge: modernizing a media institution without losing what made it iconic.
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