COLES OUT AT HEARST

Strong voice exits

Joanna Coles, the chief content officer for publishing giant Hearst, is leaving the company, The Post has learned.

Coles gave Hearst President and CEO Steve Swartz her resignation in recent days and on Friday was negotiating her exit package, one source said.

Hearst did not return calls for comment, and Coles declined to comment.

Coles, 56, who served as editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan and Marie Claire before her promotion to oversee all Hearst titles, has been one of the more prominent faces at the 131-yearold New York company.

Coles is expected to leave the company by the end of next week. Her immediate plans could not be learned.

The outspoken Brit, who has been at Hearst since 2006, helped burnish partnerships with Snapchat and Airbnb and played a large role in developing TV shows like “The Bold Type” on Freeform and the now-canceled “So Cosmo,” on E! hosted by Coles.

As an editor, Coles emerged as a voice for women in general and young women in particular. She fostered relationships between the likes of Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg, Planned Parenthood’s Cecile Richards and activist Gloria Steinem and her magazines.

Coles is also a frequent guest on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” and “CBS This Morning” — and earlier in her career was a judge on “Project Runway.”

To many, Coles’ exit is not surprising.

A recent shake-up in the upper echelon of Hearst saw executive Troy Young last week get named president of Hearst Magazines. Young had been president of the digital division.

The move irked some in the building, including Coles, who did not attend Young’s coronation at Hearst Tower following his appointment, sources said. Instead, she canceled her editorial meetings and fled to Los Angeles for refuge, sources said. One source close to Coles said she went to the West Coast to attend a Snap, Inc. board meeting, which also kept from the celebration for Young.

And it is no secret in the halls of Hearst Tower that Coles and Young aren’t exactly BFFs. Young has been known to rub many at Hearst the wrong way with what some of his colleagues call his brash decisionmaking and boorish manner.

The dislike appeared to be mutual. Immediately after his promotion, Young told The Post that, “nothing has been decided” regarding the future of Coles or longtime Hearst veteran Michael Clinton, the president of marketing.

While Coles’ exit is perhaps not surprising, it is, nonetheless, a blow to Hearst, which lacks the star power of rival Condé Nast, whose cast includes artistic director and Vogue Editorin-Chief Anna Wintour.

Young, who took the job of longtime Hearst Magazines President David Carey, may have that to chew on as he puts together his own team.