Misplaced Pages

#369630

113-433: William Randolph Hearst Sr. ( / h ɜːr s t / ; April 29, 1863 – August 14, 1951) was an American newspaper publisher and politician who developed the nation's largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications . His flamboyant methods of yellow journalism in violation of ethics and standards influenced the nation's popular media by emphasizing sensationalism and human-interest stories . Hearst entered

226-467: A Protestant immigrant; the "Hearse" spelling of the family name was never used afterward by the family members themselves, nor any family of any size. Hearst's mother, née Phoebe Elizabeth Apperson, was also of Scots-Irish ancestry; her family came from Galway . She was appointed as the first woman Regent of University of California, Berkeley , donated funds to establish libraries at several universities, funded many anthropological expeditions, and founded

339-564: A U.S. Senator , first appointed for a brief period in 1886 and was then elected later that year. He served from 1887 to his death in 1891. His paternal great-grandfather was John Hearst of Ulster Protestant origin. John Hearst, with his wife and six children, migrated to America from Ballybay , County Monaghan, Ireland, as part of the Cahans Exodus in 1766. The family settled in the Province of South Carolina . Their immigration there

452-527: A digital marketing services business. The acquisition brought Hearst Newspapers to publishing 19 daily and 61 weekly papers. Other 2017 acquisitions include the New Haven Register and associated papers from Digital First Media , and the Alton, Illinois , Telegraph and Jacksonville, Illinois , Journal-Courier from Civitas Media . In October 2017, Hearst announced it would acquire

565-772: A 1937 liquidation, also had to merge some of his morning papers into his afternoon papers. In Chicago, he combined the morning Herald-Examiner and the afternoon American into the Herald-American in 1939. This followed the 1937 combination of the New York Evening Journal and the morning American into the New York Journal-American , the sale of the Omaha Daily Bee to the World-Herald . Afternoon papers were

678-613: A Democrat while also creating the Independence Party . He was defeated for the governorship by Charles Evans Hughes . Hearst's unsuccessful campaigns for office after his tenure in the House of Representatives earned him the unflattering but short-lived nickname of "William 'Also-Randolph' Hearst", which was coined by Wallace Irwin . Hearst was on the left wing of the Progressive Movement , speaking on behalf of

791-539: A chain that numbered nearly 30 papers in major American cities at its peak. He later expanded to magazines, creating the largest newspaper and magazine business in the world. Hearst controlled the editorial positions and coverage of political news in all his papers and magazines, and thereby often published his personal views. He sensationalized Spanish atrocities in Cuba while calling for war in 1898 against Spain . Historians, however, reject his subsequent claims to have started

904-646: A common board of thirteen trustees (its composition fixed at five family members and eight outsiders) administers the Hearst Foundation, the William Randolph Hearst Foundation, and the trust that owns (and selects the 26-member board of) the Hearst Corporation (parent of Hearst Communications which shares the same officers). The foundations shared ownership until tax law changed to prevent this. In 2009, it

1017-591: A fever pitch. New York's elites read other papers, such as the Times and Sun , which were far more restrained. The Journal and the World were local papers oriented to a very large working class audience in New York City. They were not among the top ten sources of news in papers in other cities, and their stories did not make a splash outside New York City. Outrage across the country came from evidence of what Spain

1130-714: A few years, his paper dominated the San Francisco market. Early in his career at the San Francisco Examiner, Hearst envisioned running a large newspaper chain and "always knew that his dream of a nation-spanning, multi-paper news operation was impossible without a triumph in New York". In 1895, with the financial support of his widowed mother (his father had died in 1891), Hearst bought the then failing New York Morning Journal , hiring writers such as Stephen Crane and Julian Hawthorne and entering into

1243-534: A fierce, often spiteful competition for readers in which both papers spent large sums of money and saw huge gains in circulation. Within a few months of purchasing the Journal , Hearst hired away Pulitzer's three top editors: Sunday editor Morrill Goddard, who greatly expanded the scope and appeal of the American Sunday newspaper; Solomon Carvalho; and a young Arthur Brisbane , who became managing editor of

SECTION 10

#1732798245370

1356-587: A gift, in appreciation of Hearst's major role in Cuba's liberation. In part to aid in his political ambitions, Hearst opened newspapers in other cities, among them Chicago, Los Angeles and Boston. In 1915, he founded International Film Service , an animation studio designed to exploit the popularity of the comic strips he controlled. The creation of his Chicago paper was requested by the Democratic National Committee . Hearst used this as an excuse for his mother Phoebe Hearst to transfer him

1469-638: A head-to-head circulation war with Joseph Pulitzer , owner and publisher of the New York World . Hearst "stole" cartoonist Richard F. Outcault along with all of Pulitzer's Sunday staff. Another prominent hire was James J. Montague , who came from the Portland Oregonian and started his well-known "More Truth Than Poetry" column at the Hearst-owned New York Evening Journal . When Hearst purchased

1582-637: A hill overlooking the Pacific Ocean near San Simeon , has been preserved as a State Historical Monument and is designated as a National Historic Landmark . Hearst was born in San Francisco to George Hearst on April 29, 1863, a millionaire mining engineer, owner of gold and other mines through his corporation, and his much younger wife Phoebe Apperson Hearst , from a small town in Missouri. The elder Hearst later entered politics. He served as

1695-643: A majority stake in Litton Entertainment . Its CEO, Dave Morgan, was a former employee of Hearst. On January 23, 2017, Hearst announced that it had acquired the business operations of The Pioneer Group from fourth-generation family owners Jack and John Batdorff. The Pioneer Group was a Michigan-based communications network that circulates print and digital news to local communities across the state. In addition to daily newspapers, The Pioneer and Manistee News Advocate , Pioneer published three weekly papers and four local shopper publications, and operated

1808-698: A newspaper owner most well known for use of yellow journalism . The Hearst family remains involved in its ownership and management. In 1880, George Hearst , mining entrepreneur and U.S. senator, bought the San Francisco Daily Examiner . In 1887, he turned the Examiner over to his son, William Randolph Hearst , who that year founded the Hearst Corporation. The younger Hearst eventually built readership for Hearst-owned newspapers and magazines from 15,000 to over 20 million. Hearst began to purchase and launched other newspapers, including

1921-563: A peak circulation of 20 million readers a day in the mid-1930s. He poorly managed finances and was so deeply in debt during the Great Depression that most of his assets had to be liquidated in the late 1930s. Hearst managed to keep his newspapers and magazines. His life story was the main inspiration for Charles Foster Kane , the lead character in Orson Welles ' film Citizen Kane (1941). His Hearst Castle , constructed on

2034-491: A profitable business in pre-television days, often outselling their morning counterparts featuring stock market information in early editions, while later editions were heavy on sporting news with results of baseball games and horse races. Afternoon papers also benefited from continuous reports from the battlefront during World War II . After the war, however, both television news and suburbs experienced explosive growth; thus, evening papers were more affected than those published in

2147-719: A puzzle games website. In April 2024, Hearst acquired the Texas magazines Austin Monthly and Austin Home from Open Sky Media. A new organization called was created Hearst Texas Austin Media to manage the titles along with the Austin Daily newsletter which was created early that year. A non-exhaustive list of its current properties and investments includes: (alphabetical by state, then title) Under William Randolph Hearst's will,

2260-587: A record "unparalleled in the history of the world." The Journal's political coverage, however, was not entirely one-sided. Kenneth Whyte says that most editors of the time "believed their papers should speak with one voice on political matters"; by contrast, in New York, Hearst "helped to usher in the multi-perspective approach we identify with the modern op-ed page". At first he supported the Russian Revolution of 1917 but later he turned against it. Hearst fought hard against Wilsonian internationalism ,

2373-543: A small army of Journal reporters to cover the Spanish–American War; they brought along portable printing equipment, which was used to print a single-edition newspaper in Cuba after the fighting had ended. Two of the Journal's correspondents, James Creelman and Edward Marshall, were wounded in the fighting. A leader of the Cuban rebels, Gen. Calixto García , gave Hearst a Cuban flag that had been riddled with bullets as

SECTION 20

#1732798245370

2486-496: A teacher. Her childhood consisted of helping her father with finances at his store, learning French , and playing the piano. In 1860, businessman George Hearst met Phoebe when he returned to St. Clair to care for his dying mother. When they married on June 15, 1862, George Hearst was 41 years old, and Phoebe was 19. Soon after their marriage, the couple left Missouri and moved to San Francisco, California , where Phoebe gave birth to their only child, William Randolph Hearst . As

2599-691: A third party of his own creation, the Municipal Ownership League . Tammany Hall exerted its utmost to defeat him. An opponent of the British Empire , Hearst opposed American involvement in the First World War and attacked the formation of the League of Nations . His newspapers abstained from endorsing any candidate in 1920 and 1924. Hearst's last bid for office came in 1922, when he was backed by Tammany Hall leaders for

2712-606: A very successful miner who later became a U.S. senator, George often left Phoebe alone during his work. She and her son were close and had many similar interests, including art and design. After Phoebe's death in 1919, William inherited a $ 10 million fortune. In the 1880s, she became a major benefactor and director of the Golden Gate Kindergarten Association and the first president of the Century Club of California. In 1902, Hearst funded

2825-463: Is not an end in itself... [they believed] our emotions tend to ignite our intellects: a story catering to a reader's feelings is more likely than a dry treatise to stimulate thought." The two papers finally declared a truce in late 1898, after both lost vast amounts of money covering the Spanish–American War . Hearst probably lost several million dollars in his first three years as publisher of

2938-724: Is worth at least $ 13 billion. On July 31, 1996, Hearst and the Cisneros Group of Companies of Venezuela announced its plans to launch Locomotion , a Latin American animation cable television channel. On March 27, 1997, Hearst Broadcasting announced that it would merge with Argyle Television Holdings II for $ 525 million, the merger was completed in August to form Hearst-Argyle Television (later renamed as Hearst Television in 2009). In 1999, Hearst sold its Avon and Morrow book publishing activities to HarperCollins . In 2000,

3051-590: The Journal Inquirer and later in October 2023 bought San Antonio Magazine. The company paid $ 150,000 in cash plus an amount equal to 90% of the magazine's accounts receivable In November 2023, Hearst acquired all print and digital operations owned by RJ Media Group, including the Record-Journal , seven weekly newspapers and a digital advertising agency. In December 2023, Hearst bought Puzzmo,

3164-706: The Los Angeles Examiner , and The Milwaukee Sentinel , supported the company's money-losing afternoon publications such as the Los Angeles Herald-Express , the New York Journal-American , and the Chicago American . The company sold the latter paper in 1956 to the Chicago Tribune ' s o wners, who changed it to the tabloid-size Chicago Today in 1969 and ceased publication in 1974. In 1960, Hearst also sold

3277-702: The New York Herald Tribune and Scripps-Howard 's World-Telegram and Sun to form the New York World Journal Tribune (recalling the names of the city's mid-market dailies), which collapsed after only a few months. The 1962 merger of the Herald-Express and Examiner in Los Angeles led to the termination of many journalists who began to stage a 10-year strike in 1967. The effects of the strike accelerated

3390-467: The New York Journal in 1895 and the Los Angeles Examiner in 1903. In 1903, Hearst created Motor magazine, the first title in his company's magazine division. He acquired Cosmopolitan in 1905, and Good Housekeeping in 1911. The company entered the book publishing business in 1913 with the formation of Hearst's International Library. Hearst began producing film features in

3503-715: The Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and the Detroit Times to The Detroit News . After a lengthy strike it sold the Milwaukee Sentinel to the afternoon Milwaukee Journal in 1962. The same year Hearst's Los Angeles papers – the morning Examiner and the afternoon Herald-Express – merged to become the evening Los Angeles Herald-Examiner . The 1962–63 New York City newspaper strike left

William Randolph Hearst - Misplaced Pages Continue

3616-617: The San Francisco Chronicle , the Houston Chronicle , Cosmopolitan and Esquire . It owns 50% of the A&;E Networks cable network group and 20% of the sports cable network group ESPN , both in partnership with The Walt Disney Company . The conglomerate also owns several business-information companies, including Fitch Group and First Databank . The company was founded by William Randolph Hearst ,

3729-943: The Washington Times-Herald . That year he also bought the Milwaukee Sentinel from Paul Block (who bought it from the Pfisters in 1929), absorbing his afternoon Wisconsin News into the morning publication. Also in 1939, he sold the Atlanta Georgian to Cox Newspapers, which merged it with the Atlanta Journal . Following Adolf Hitler's rise to power in Germany, the Nazis received positive press coverage by Hearst presses and paid ten times

3842-615: The Comstock Lode in land. In 1865 he purchased about 30,000 acres (12,000 ha), part of Rancho Piedra Blanca stretching from Simeon Bay and reached to Ragged Point. He paid the original grantee Jose de Jesus Pico USD$ 1 an acre, about twice the current market price. Hearst continued to buy parcels whenever they became available. He also bought most of Rancho San Simeon . In 1865, Hearst bought all of Rancho Santa Rosa totaling 13,184 acres (5,335 ha) except one section of 160 acres (0.6 km) that Estrada lived on. However, as

3955-654: The Herald-Examiner ). In 1919, Hearst's book publishing division was renamed Cosmopolitan Book. In the 1920s and 1930s, Hearst owned the biggest media conglomerate in the world, which included a number of magazines and newspapers in major cities. Hearst also began acquiring radio stations to complement his papers. Hearst saw financial challenges in the early 1920s, when he was using company funds to build Hearst Castle in San Simeon and support movie production at Cosmopolitan Productions . This eventually led to

4068-519: The Journal (figures are impossible to verify), but the paper began turning a profit after it ended its fight with the World. Under Hearst, the Journal remained loyal to the populist or left wing of the Democratic Party. It was the only major publication in the East to support William Jennings Bryan in 1896. Its coverage of that election was probably the most important of any newspaper in

4181-625: The Lagardère Group for more than $ 700 million and became a challenger of Time Inc ahead of Condé Nast . In December 2012, Hearst Corporation partnered again with NBCUniversal to launch Esquire Network . On February 20, 2014, Hearst Magazines International appointed Gary Ellis to the new position, Chief Digital Officer. That December, DreamWorks Animation sold a 25% stake in AwesomenessTV for $ 81.25 million to Hearst. In January 2017, Hearst announced that it had acquired

4294-512: The League of Nations , and the World Court, thereby appealing to an isolationist audience. The Morning Journal's daily circulation routinely climbed above the 1 million mark after the sinking of the Maine and U.S. entry into the Spanish–American War, a war that some called The Journal ' s War, due to the paper's immense influence in provoking American outrage against Spain. Much of

4407-822: The Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology . Hearst attended preparatory school at St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire . He gained admission to Harvard College , and began attending in 1885. While there, he was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon , the A.D. Club , a Harvard Final club , the Hasty Pudding Theatricals , and the Harvard Lampoon prior to being expelled . His antics at Harvard ranged from sponsoring massive beer parties on Harvard Square to sending pudding pots used as chamber pots to his professors with their images depicted within

4520-562: The San Antonio Light after it purchased the rival San Antonio Express-News from Murdoch. On November 8, 1990, Hearst Corporation acquired 20% stake of ESPN, Inc. from RJR Nabisco for a price estimated between $ 165 million and $ 175 million. The other 80% has been owned by The Walt Disney Company since 1996. Over the last 25 years, the ESPN investment is said to have accounted for at least 50% of total Hearst Corp profits and

4633-584: The University of Pennsylvania , who was also a medical doctor who treated her for a heart condition. In 1896, in her first major act of museum philanthropy, she donated more than two hundred objects to the Penn Museum , many of them items such as Anasazi ceramics excavated from the Cliff Palace site of Mesa Verde , Colorado. [1] Later, she also funded a Penn Museum expedition to Russia, and sent

William Randolph Hearst - Misplaced Pages Continue

4746-497: The World Court . His papers carried the publisher's rambling, vitriolic, all-capital-letters editorials, but he no longer employed the energetic reporters, editors, and columnists who might have made a serious attack. He reached 20 million readers in the mid-1930s. They included much of the working class which Roosevelt had attracted by three-to-one margins in the 1936 election. The Hearst papers—like most major chains—had supported

4859-476: The "penny paper", so called because its copies sold for a penny apiece, the Journal was competing with New York's 16 other major dailies. It had a strong focus on Democratic Party politics. Hearst imported his best managers from the San Francisco Examiner and "quickly established himself as the most attractive employer" among New York newspapers. He was seen as generous, paid more than his competitors, and gave credit to his writers with page-one bylines. Further, he

4972-495: The 1840s. In 1898 she declared her belief in the Baháʼí Faith , and helped play a key role in the spread of the religion in the United States. Hearst had already been an early investor in the initiative of Sarah Farmer using the Greenacre Inn as a summer center of cross-religion gatherings and cultural development shortly after the 1893 Parliament of Religions . In November 1898, Hearst, with Lua Getsinger and others, briefly stopped off in Paris, on their way to Palestine, and

5085-530: The Aztec specialist, Zelia Nuttall , to Moscow for this purpose. In 1901, Phoebe Hearst founded the University of California Museum of Anthropology, later called the Robert H. Lowie Museum of Anthropology and renamed the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology in 1992. The original collection comprised 230,000 objects representing cultures and civilizations throughout history. The museum now contains about 3.8 million objects. Throughout her lifetime and as provided in her will, Hearst donated over 60,000 objects to

5198-436: The British, French, Japanese, and Russians. Following Hitler's rise to power, Hearst became a supporter of the Nazi Party , ordering his journalists to publish favorable coverage of Nazi Germany, and allowing leading Nazis to publish articles in his newspapers. He was a leading supporter of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1932–1934, but then broke with FDR and became his most prominent enemy on the right. Hearst's publication reached

5311-441: The Chandlers' Los Angeles Times , also competitor to the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner , which folded in 1989. In 1990, both King Features Entertainment and King Phoenix Entertainment were rebranded under the collective Hearst Entertainment umbrella. King Features Entertainment was renamed to Hearst Entertainment Distribution, while King Phoenix Entertainment was renamed to Hearst Entertainment Productions. In 1993, Hearst closed

5424-734: The Hearst Corp. pulled another "switcheroo" by selling its flagship and "Monarch of the Dailies", the afternoon San Francisco Examiner , and acquiring the long-time competing, but now larger morning paper, San Francisco Chronicle from the Charles de Young family. The San Francisco Examiner is now published as a daily freesheet. In December 2003, Marvel Entertainment acquired Cover Concepts from Hearst, to extend Marvel's demographic reach among public school children. In 2009, A&E Networks acquired Lifetime Entertainment Services , with Hearst ownership increasing to 42%. In 2010, Hearst acquired digital marketing agency iCrossing. In 2011, Hearst absorbed more than 100 magazine titles from

5537-459: The Hearst Corporation began pursuing joint operating agreements (JOAs). It reached the first agreement with the DeYoung family, proprietors of the afternoon San Francisco Chronicle , which began to produce a joint Sunday edition with the Examiner . In turn, the Examiner became an evening publication, absorbing the News-Call-Bulletin . The following year, the Journal-American reached another JOA with another two landmark New York City papers:

5650-434: The Hearst newspaper empire and a well-known columnist. Contrary to popular assumption, they were not lured away by higher pay—rather, each man had grown tired of the office environment that Pulitzer encouraged. While Hearst's many critics attribute the Journal ' s incredible success to cheap sensationalism, Kenneth Whyte noted in The Uncrowned King: The Sensational Rise Of William Randolph Hearst : "Rather than racing to

5763-589: The James Brown Cattle Company. Hearst gradually bought adjoining land until he owned about 250,000 acres (100,000 ha). Hearst Communications Hearst Corporation , its wholly owned subsidiary Hearst Holdings Inc. , and HHI's wholly owned subsidiary Hearst Communications Inc. (usually referred to simply as Hearst ) constitute an American multinational mass media and business information conglomerate based in Hearst Tower in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Hearst owns newspapers, magazines, television channels , and television stations, including

SECTION 50

#1732798245370

5876-410: The National Congress of Mothers, which evolved eventually into the National Parent-Teacher Association . In 1900, she co-founded the all-girls National Cathedral School in Washington, DC . A nearby public elementary school bears her name. Hearst funded the Hearst Library in Anaconda, Montana , in 1898. She maintained it until 1904. Hearst became a close friend of Dr. William Pepper , provost of

5989-489: The Republican Alf Landon that year. While campaigning against Roosevelt's policy of developing formal diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union, in 1935 Hearst ordered his editors to reprint eyewitness accounts of the Ukrainian famine (the Holodomor , which occurred in 1932–1933). These had been supplied in 1933 by Welsh freelance journalist Gareth Jones , and by the disillusioned American Communist Fred Beal . The New York Times , content with what it has since conceded

6102-450: The U.S. Senate nomination in New York. Al Smith vetoed this, earning the lasting enmity of Hearst. Although Hearst shared Smith's opposition to Prohibition , he swung his papers behind Herbert Hoover in the 1928 presidential election. During the 1920s Hearst was a Jeffersonian democrat . He warned citizens against the dangers of big government and against unchecked federal power that could infringe on individual rights. When unemployment

6215-687: The United States on a goodwill visit. During his visit, Prince Iesato and his delegation met with William Randolph Hearst with the hope of improving relations between the two nations. In 1903, 40-year-old Hearst married Millicent Veronica Willson (1882–1974), a 21-year-old chorus girl, in New York City. The couple had five sons: George Randolph Hearst , born on April 23, 1904; William Randolph Hearst Jr. , born on January 27, 1908; John Randolph Hearst , born September 26, 1909; and twins Randolph Apperson Hearst and David Whitmire (né Elbert Willson) Hearst , born on December 2, 1915. Conceding an end to his political hopes, Hearst became involved in an affair with

6328-496: The bottom, he [Hearst] drove the Journal and the penny press upmarket. The Journal was a demanding, sophisticated paper by contemporary standards." Though yellow journalism would be much maligned, Whyte said, "All good yellow journalists ... sought the human in every story and edited without fear of emotion or drama. They wore their feelings on their pages, believing it was an honest and wholesome way to communicate with readers", but, as Whyte pointed out: "This appeal to feelings

6441-419: The boundaries of mass appeal for newspapers through bold headlines, aggressive news gathering, generous use of cartoons and illustrations, populist politics, progressive crusades, an exuberant public spirit and dramatic crime and human-interest stories. Hearst's Journal used the same recipe for success, forcing Pulitzer to drop the price of the World from two cents to a penny. Soon the two papers were locked in

6554-619: The bowls. Searching for an occupation, in 1887 Hearst took over management of his father's newspaper, the San Francisco Examiner , which his father had acquired in 1880 as repayment for a gambling debt. Giving his paper the motto "Monarch of the Dailies", Hearst acquired the most advanced equipment and the most prominent writers of the time, including Ambrose Bierce , Mark Twain , Jack London , and political cartoonist Homer Davenport . A self-proclaimed populist , Hearst reported accounts of municipal and financial corruption, often attacking companies in which his own family held an interest. Within

6667-407: The city with no papers for over three months, with the Journal-American one of the earliest strike targets of the Typographical Union. The Boston Record and the Evening American merged in 1961 as the Record-American and in 1964, the Baltimore News-Post became the Baltimore News-American . In 1953, Hearst Magazines bought Sports Afield magazine, which it published until 1999 when it sold

6780-417: The construction of a building to provide teacher training and to house kindergarten classes and the association's offices. The association had 26 schools at the time of the San Francisco earthquake in 1906. Hearst was a major benefactor of the University of California, Berkeley , and its first woman regent , serving on the board from 1897 until her death. That year, she contributed to the establishment of

6893-528: The copyrights of a number of popular comics characters; a film company, Cosmopolitan Productions ; extensive New York City real estate; and thousands of acres of land in California and Mexico, along with timber and mining interests inherited from his father. Hearst promoted writers and cartoonists despite the lack of any apparent demand for them by his readers. The press critic A. J. Liebling reminds us how many of Hearst's stars would not have been deemed employable elsewhere. One Hearst favorite, George Herriman ,

SECTION 60

#1732798245370

7006-463: The country as “the constantly increasing tendency toward socialism and communism”. At the Democratic Party Convention in 1932, with control of delegations from his own state of California and from Garner's home state of Texas, Hearst had enough influence to ensure that the triumphant Roosevelt picked Garner as his running mate. In the anticipation that Roosevelt would turn out to be, in his words, “properly conservative”, Hearst supported his election. But

7119-434: The country, attacking relentlessly the unprecedented role of money in the Republican campaign and the dominating role played by William McKinley 's political and financial manager, Mark Hanna , the first national party 'boss' in American history. A year after taking over the paper, Hearst could boast that sales of the Journal's post-election issue (including the evening and German-language editions) topped 1.5 million,

7232-406: The coverage leading up to the war, beginning with the outbreak of the Cuban Revolution in 1895 , was tainted by rumor, propaganda, and sensationalism, with the "yellow" papers regarded as the worst offenders. The Journal and other New York newspapers were so one-sided and full of errors in their reporting that coverage of the Cuban crisis and the ensuing Spanish–American War is often cited as one of

7345-530: The domestic practices of Nazism, but he believed that German demands for boundary revision were legitimate. While he was not pro-Nazi, he accepted more German positions and propaganda than did some other editors and publishers." With “AMERICA FIRST” emblazoned on his newspaper masthead, Hearst celebrated the “great achievement” of the new Nazi regime in Germany—a lesson to all “liberty-loving people.” In 1934, after checking with Jewish leaders, Hearst visited Berlin to interview Adolf Hitler . When Hitler asked why he

7458-491: The economic collapse of the Great Depression in the United States and the vast over-extension of his empire cost him control of his holdings. It is unlikely that the newspapers ever paid their own way; mining, ranching and forestry provided whatever dividends the Hearst Corporation paid out. When the collapse came, all Hearst properties were hit hard, but none more so than the papers. Hearst's conservative politics, increasingly at odds with those of his readers, worsened matters for

7571-439: The famine was "updated": the impression was created of the famine continuing into 1934. In response, Louis Fischer wrote an article in The Nation accusing Walker of "pure invention" because Fischer had been to Ukraine in 1934 and claimed that he had not seen famine. He framed the story as an attempt by Hearst to "spoil Soviet-American relations" as part of "an anti-red campaign". According to Rodney Carlisle, "Hearst condemned

7684-403: The film actress and comedian Marion Davies (1897–1961), former mistress of his friend Paul Block . From about 1919, he lived openly with her in California. After the death of Patricia Lake (1919/1923–1993), who had been presented as Davies's "niece," her family confirmed that she was Davies's and Hearst's daughter. She had acknowledged this before her death. Millicent separated from Hearst in

7797-521: The film company shut down; there was even a well-publicized sale of art and antiquities. While World War II restored circulation and advertising revenues, his great days were over. The Hearst Corporation continues to this day as a large, privately held media conglomerate based in New York City. Hearst won two elections to Congress , then lost a series of elections. He narrowly failed in attempts to become mayor of New York City in both 1905 and 1909 and governor of New York in 1906, nominally remaining

7910-451: The island—many of which turned out to be untrue—were motivated primarily by Hearst's outrage at Spain's brutal policies on the island. These had resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent Cubans. The most well-known story involved the imprisonment and escape of Cuban prisoner Evangelina Cisneros . While Hearst and the yellow press did not directly cause America's war with Spain, they inflamed public opinion in New York City to

8023-433: The journal to Robert E. Petersen . In 1958, Hearst's International News Service merged with E.W. Scripps' United Press , forming United Press International as a response to the growth of the Associated Press and Reuters . The following year Scripps-Howard's San Francisco News merged with Hearst's afternoon San Francisco Call-Bulletin . Also in 1959, Hearst acquired the paperback book publisher Avon Books . In 1965,

8136-414: The largest such collection west of Chicago. Hearst also realized the importance of preserving Native Californian culture. With her support, anthropologist Alfred L. Kroeber and his students, including Robert F. Heizer , documented Native Californian culture in the form of photographs, audio recordings, texts, and artifacts. This research helped to preserve approximately 250,000 Native Californian artifacts,

8249-666: The latter are still in circulation, including such periodicals as Cosmopolitan , Good Housekeeping , Town and Country , and Harper's Bazaar . In 1924, Hearst opened the New York Daily Mirror , a racy tabloid frankly imitating the New York Daily News . Among his other holdings were two news services, Universal News and International News Service , or INS, the latter of which he founded in 1909. He also owned INS companion radio station WINS in New York; King Features Syndicate , which still owns

8362-662: The magazine and book businesses of Rodale in Emmaus, Pennsylvania with some sources reporting the purchase price as about $ 225 million. The transaction was expected to close in January following government approvals. In 2018, Hearst acquired the global health and wellness magazine brands owned by Rodale, Inc. In April 2023, Hearst bought WBBH-TV , an NBC-affiliated television station in Fort Myers, Florida, from Waterman Broadcasting Corporation. In June 2023, Hearst acquired

8475-899: The merger of the magazine Hearst International with Cosmopolitan in 1925. Despite some financial troubles, Hearst began extending its reach in 1921, purchasing the Detroit Times , The Boston Record , and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer . Hearst then added the Los Angeles Herald and Washington Herald , as well as the Oakland Post-Enquirer , the Syracuse Telegram and the Rochester Journal-American in 1922. He continued his buying spree into

8588-907: The mid-1910s, creating one of the earliest animation studios : the International Film Service , turning characters from Hearst newspaper strips into film characters. Hearst bought the Atlanta Georgian in 1912, the San Francisco Call and the San Francisco Post in 1913, the Boston Advertiser and the Washington Times (unrelated to the present-day paper) in 1917, and the Chicago Herald in 1918 (resulting in

8701-509: The mid-1920s after tiring of his longtime affair with Davies, but the couple remained legally married until Hearst's death. As a leading philanthropist, Millicent built an independent life for herself in New York City. She was active in society and in 1921 founded the Free Milk Fund for Babies. For decades, the fund provided New York's poverty-stricken families with free milk for children. George Hearst invested some of his fortune from

8814-694: The mid-1920s, purchasing the Baltimore News (1923), the San Antonio Light (1924), the Albany Times Union (1924), and The Milwaukee Sentinel (1924). In 1924, Hearst entered the tabloid market in New York City with New York Daily Mirror , meant to compete with the New York Daily News . In addition to print and radio, Hearst established Cosmopolitan Pictures in the early 1920s, distributing his films under

8927-615: The morning, whose circulation remained stable while their afternoon counterparts' sales plummeted. In 1947, Hearst produced an early television newscast for the DuMont Television Network : I.N.S. Telenews , and in 1948 he became the owner of one of the first television stations in the country, WBAL-TV in Baltimore . The earnings of Hearst's three morning papers, the San Francisco Examiner ,

9040-650: The most extensive in the world. The museum collection is available to students and researchers for examination. A gallery located on the University of California Berkeley campus is available for public view. Hearst was named to the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association as the second vice-regent representing California. She held that position from 1889 to 1918, contributing much time and money to the restoration of George Washington 's home at Mount Vernon , furnishing it with Washington-owned objects and improving

9153-605: The most significant milestones in the rise of yellow journalism 's hold over the mainstream media. Huge headlines in the Journal assigned blame for the Maine's destruction on sabotage, which was based on no evidence. This reporting stoked outrage and indignation against Spain among the paper's readers in New York. The Journal's crusade against Spanish rule in Cuba was not due to mere jingoism, although "the democratic ideals and humanitarianism that inspired their coverage are largely lost to history," as are their "heroic efforts to find

9266-572: The museum. She also funded expeditions such as the Pepper–Hearst expedition (1895–1897) on the coast of Florida , near Tarpon Springs . Most notable are the 1899 expeditions in Egypt by American archaeologist George A. Reisner and in Peru by German archaeologist Max Uhle . These ventures further contributed to the museum's collection. Among these are approximately 20,000 ancient Egyptian artifacts,

9379-670: The necessary start-up funds. By the mid-1920s he had a nationwide string of 28 newspapers, among them the Los Angeles Examiner , the Boston American , the Atlanta Georgian , the Chicago Examiner , the Detroit Times , the Seattle Post-Intelligencer , the Washington Times-Herald , the Washington Herald , and his flagship, the San Francisco Examiner . Hearst also diversified his publishing interests into book publishing and magazines. Several of

9492-587: The newly created Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer . In 1929, Hearst and MGM created the Hearst Metrotone newsreels. The Great Depression hurt Hearst and his publications. Cosmopolitan Book was sold to Farrar & Rinehart in 1931. After two years of leasing them to Eleanor "Cissy" Patterson (of the McCormick-Patterson family that owned the Chicago Tribune ), Hearst sold her The Washington Times and Herald in 1939; she merged them to form

9605-411: The once great Hearst media chain. Having been refused the right to sell another round of bonds to unsuspecting investors, the shaky empire tottered. Unable to service its existing debts, Hearst Corporation faced a court-mandated reorganization in 1937. From that point, Hearst was reduced to being an employee, subject to the directives of an outside manager. Newspapers and other properties were liquidated,

9718-644: The pace of the company's demise, with the Herald Examiner ceasing publication November 2, 1989. Hearst moved into hardcover publishing by acquiring Arbor House in 1978 and William Morrow and Company in 1981. In 1982, the company sold the Boston Herald American — the result of the 1972 merger of Hearst's Record-American & Advertiser with the Herald-Traveler — to Rupert Murdoch 's News Corporation , which renamed

9831-482: The paper as The Boston Herald , competing to this day with The Boston Globe . In 1986, Hearst bought the Houston Chronicle and that same year closed the 213-year-old Baltimore News-American after a failed attempt to reach a JOA with A.S. Abell Company , the family who published The Baltimore Sun since its founding in 1837. Abell sold the paper several days later to the Times-Mirror syndicate of

9944-475: The publishing business in 1887 with Mitchell Trubitt after being given control of The San Francisco Examiner by his wealthy father, Senator George Hearst . After moving to New York City, Hearst acquired the New York Journal and fought a bitter circulation war with Joseph Pulitzer 's New York World . Hearst sold papers by printing giant headlines over lurid stories featuring crime, corruption, sex, and innuendos. Hearst acquired more newspapers and created

10057-559: The rapprochement with Roosevelt did not last the year. The New Deal's program of unemployment relief, in Hearst's view, was “more communistic than the communist” and “un-American to the core”. More and more often, Hearst newspapers supported business over organized labor and condemned higher income tax legislation. Hearst broke with FDR in spring 1935 when the president vetoed the Patman Bonus Bill for veterans and tried to enter

10170-569: The right to vote "to protect homes and children." In 1895, when the Women's Congress resolved for the passage of a federal amendment, Hearst supported it "distantly". She officially declared herself in favor of suffrage in the summer of 1911, saying it would enable "the betterment of conditions affecting children and women particularly." Hearst was raised a member of the Christian Cumberland Presbyterian community in

10283-581: The spring of 1901 Hearst also met with Sarah Farmer again, and invested again in Green Acre, as it came to be called, in 1902, and, further, an agent of Hearst acted for Sarah Farmer when she changed her will in 1909 to bequeath Green Acre to the Baháʼís in the event of Farmer's death. Hearst had also been a victim of an incident seeking to extort money from her, which had caused her estrangement from some Bahá'ís. In October 1912, she invited ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, who

10396-545: The standard subscription rate for the INS wire service belonging to Hearst. William Randolph Hearst personally instructed his reporters in Germany to only give positive coverage to Hitler and the Nazis, and fired journalists who refused to write stories favourable of German fascism. During this time, high ranking Nazis were given space to write articles in Hearst press newspapers, including Hermann Göring and Alfred Rosenberg . Hearst, with his chain now owned by his creditors after

10509-679: The systematic massive Nazi attacks on Jews known as Kristallnacht (November 9–10, 1938), the Hearst press, like all major American newspapers, blamed Hitler and the Nazis: "The entire civilized world is shocked and shamed by Germany's brutal oppression of the Jewish people," read an editorial in all Hearst papers. "You [Hitler] are making the flag of National Socialism a symbol of national savagery," read an editorial written by Hearst. During 1934, Japan / U.S. relations were unstable. In an attempt to remedy this, Prince Tokugawa Iesato travelled throughout

10622-547: The trip starting at Lakehurst Naval Air Station, New Jersey . The ship's captain, Dr. Hugo Eckener , first flew the Graf Zeppelin across the Atlantic from Germany to pick up Hearst's photographer and at least three Hearst correspondents. One of them, Grace Marguerite Hay Drummond-Hay , by that flight became the first woman to travel around the world by air. The Hearst news empire reached a revenue peak about 1928, but

10735-502: The truth on the island under unusually difficult circumstances." The Journal's journalistic activism in support of the Cuban rebels, rather, was centered around Hearst's political and business ambitions. Perhaps the best known myth in American journalism is the claim, without any contemporary evidence, that the illustrator Frederic Remington , sent by Hearst to Cuba to cover the Cuban War of Independence , cabled Hearst to tell him all

10848-514: The very first Westerners to make the pilgrimage and meet ʻAbdu'l-Bahá. Hearst later wrote, "Those three days were the most memorable days of my life." Yet after the first pilgrimage attempts at correspondence on behalf of Hearst by Lua Getsinger were leaked naming her involvement in the religion at a time of rising considerations of her son's political activities and so Hearst dismissed the Getsingers from their stay at her home in 1901. Still in

10961-659: The visitor experience. The William Randolph Hearst Foundation continues to fund projects at Mount Vernon in her memory. Hearst also donated money to the restoration of Pohick Church in Virginia, and donated a pipe organ to St. Stephen's Church in California, where she was also a parishoner. Hearst chose a "different way" than radical feminists. While she believed in women having financial freedom, in her support for women's suffrage she did not strongly believe in women gaining political power. She thought women should have

11074-489: The war with Spain as overly extravagant. He was twice elected as a Democrat to the U.S. House of Representatives . He ran unsuccessfully for President of the United States in 1904 , Mayor of New York City in 1905 and 1909 , and for Governor of New York in 1906 . During his political career, he espoused views generally associated with the left wing of the Progressive Movement , claiming to speak on behalf of

11187-512: The working class (who bought his papers) and denouncing the rich and powerful (who disdained his editorials). With the support of Tammany Hall (the regular Democratic organization in Manhattan), Hearst was elected to Congress from New York in 1902 and 1904. He made a major effort to win the 1904 Democratic nomination for president , losing to conservative Alton B. Parker . Breaking with Tammany in 1907, Hearst ran for mayor of New York City under

11300-404: The working class. After 1918 and the end of World War I, Hearst gradually began adopting more conservative views and started promoting an isolationist foreign policy to avoid any more entanglement in what he regarded as corrupt European affairs. He was at once a militant nationalist, a staunch anti-communist after the Russian Revolution , and deeply suspicious of the League of Nations and of

11413-524: Was "tendentious" reporting of Soviet achievements, printed the blanket denials of its Pulitzer Prize -winning Moscow correspondent Walter Duranty . Duranty, who was widely credited with facilitating the rapprochement with Moscow, dismissed the Hearst-circulated reports of man-made starvation as a politically motivated "scare story". In the articles, written by Thomas Walker, to better serve Hearst's editorial line against Roosevelt's Soviet policy

11526-810: Was a 43,281-acre (17,515 ha) land grant given in 1838 by California governor Juan Bautista Alvarado to Ygnacio Pastor. The grant encompassed present-day Jolon and land to the west. When Pastor obtained title from the Public Land Commission in 1875, Faxon Atherton immediately purchased the land. By 1880, the James Brown Cattle Company owned and operated Rancho Milpitas and neighboring Rancho Los Ojitos . In 1923, Newhall Land sold Rancho San Miguelito de Trinidad and Rancho El Piojo to William Randolph Hearst. In 1925, Hearst's Piedmont Land and Cattle Company bought Rancho Milpitas and Rancho Los Ojitos (Little Springs) from

11639-513: Was common with claims before the Public Land Commission , Estrada's legal claim was costly and took many years to resolve. Estrada mortgaged the ranch to Domingo Pujol, a Spanish-born San Francisco lawyer, who represented him. Estrada was unable to pay the loan and Pujol foreclosed on it. Estrada did not have the title to the land. Hearst sued, but ended up with only 1,340 acres (5.4 km) of Estrada's holdings. Rancho Milpitas

11752-475: Was doing in Cuba, a major influence in the decision by Congress to declare war. According to a 21st-century historian, war was declared by Congress because public opinion was sickened by the bloodshed, and because leaders like McKinley realized that Spain had lost control of Cuba. These factors weighed more on the president's mind than the melodramas in the New York Journal. Hearst sailed to Cuba with

11865-552: Was estimated to be the largest private company managed by trustees in this way. As of 2017, the trustees are: The trust dissolves when all family members alive at the time of Hearst's death in August 1951 have died. Phoebe Hearst She was born Phoebe Elizabeth Apperson in St. Clair, Missouri , in Franklin County , the daughter of Drucilla (Whitmire) and Randolph Walker Apperson. In her early years, Phoebe studied to be

11978-476: Was near 25 percent, it appeared that Hoover would lose his bid for reelection in 1932, so Hearst sought to block the nomination of Franklin D. Roosevelt as the Democratic challenger. While continuing to oppose Smith, he promoted the rival candidacy of Speaker of the House , John Nance Garner , a Texan "whose guiding motto is ‘America First'" and who, in his own words, saw “the gravest possible menace” facing

12091-403: Was quiet in Cuba. Hearst, in this canard, is said to have responded, "Please remain. You furnish the pictures and I'll furnish the war." Hearst was personally dedicated to the cause of the Cuban rebels, and the Journal did some of the most important and courageous reporting on the conflict—as well as some of the most sensationalized. Their stories on the Cuban rebellion and Spain's atrocities on

12204-730: Was shocked to see May Bolles (later Maxwell), later a well known American member of the Baháʼí Faith, bedridden with the chronic malady with which she had been afflicted. Hearst invited Bolles to travel to Palestine with her, believing that the change of air would be conducive to her health. Getsinger disclosed to Bolles the purpose of the journey: a pilgrimage to visit the then head of the Baháʼí Faith: ʻAbdu'l-Bahá . The group travelled to Akka and Haifa in Ottoman Palestine on pilgrimage, arriving on December 14, 1898. They were

12317-617: Was so misunderstood by the American press, Hearst retorted: "Because Americans believe in democracy, and are averse to dictatorship." William Randolph Hearst instructed his reporters in Germany to give positive coverage of the Nazis, and fired journalists who refused to write stories favourable of German fascism. Hearst's papers ran columns without rebuttal by Nazi leader Hermann Göring , Alfred Rosenberg , and Hitler himself, as well as Mussolini and other dictators in Europe and Latin America. After

12430-529: Was spurred in part by the colonial government's policy that encouraged the immigration of Irish Protestants , many of Scots origin. The names "John Hearse" and "John Hearse Jr." appear on the council records of October 26, 1766, being credited with meriting 400 and 100 acres (1.62 and 0.40 km) of land on the Long Canes in what became Abbeville District, based upon 100 acres (0.40 km) to heads of household and 50 acres (0.20 km) for each dependent of

12543-448: Was the inventor of the dizzy comic strip Krazy Kat . Not especially popular with either readers or editors when it was first published, in the 21st century, it is considered a classic, a belief once held only by Hearst himself. In 1929, he became one of the sponsors of the first round-the-world voyage in an airship, the LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin from Germany. His sponsorship was conditional on

12656-530: Was travelling throughout the United States, to stay at her home for a long weekend, even though at that time she had become estranged from the Bahá'í community. During his stay, ʻAbdu'l-Bahá mentioned that anyone who tried to extort money or goods from others should not be considered a true Bahá'í. She died at her home, Hacienda del Pozo de Verona , in Pleasanton, California , aged 76, on April 13, 1919, during

12769-677: Was unfailingly polite, unassuming, "impeccably calm", and indulgent of "prima donnas, eccentrics, bohemians, drunks, or reprobates so long as they had useful talents" according to historian Kenneth Whyte. Hearst's activist approach to journalism can be summarized by the motto, "While others Talk, the Journal Acts." The New York Journal and its chief rival, the New York World, mastered a style of popular journalism that came to be derided as " yellow journalism ", so named after Outcault's Yellow Kid comic. Pulitzer's World had pushed

#369630