NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Hearst Business Media continues to find a way to grow. The privately held media company has a 30% compound annual growth rate over the past decade.

This stems partly from widening its focus. In addition to its well-known glossy magazines, including Esquire, Seventeen and Good Housekeeping, the company has added a digital presence. 

Richard Malloch, president of Hearst Business Media, says the company is focused on driving revenues from its must-have big data. 

The company's "incredible content" is used to create opportunities for its customers who need to make better, smarter and quicker decisions in the workplace, he said. 

Hearst caters to the healthcare, transportation and financial sectors in this regard. 

While advertising remains a great business and core part of the Hearst business model, it's also cyclical in nature, Malloch said. That's why the company focuses on subscriptions, which are less cyclical.

Malloch said that subscriptions tend to be impacted by different measures. For instance, poor weather will affect subscriptions for the company's transportation data, while debt issuance and credit ratings will impact its financial subscriptions. 

Hearst's 90% customer retention rate shows how valuable its data is for subscribers. The company continuously finds new content, aggregates it, and is then able to deliver it to its customers in a timely enough fashion that they are able to use it effectively.  

The company has also begun to rely more on its international business, which now accounts for 60% of sales, Malloch said. The company has 30 offices around the world as a result. 

For instance, there's a large amount of debt financing happening Asia because of all of the previous equity financing, so that's creating a big opportunity for Hearst, he concluded. 

This article is commentary by an independent contributor. At the time of publication, the author held no positions in the stocks mentioned.