Hearst, William Randolph (1863–1951)

WILLIAM RANDOLPH HEARST was born on April 29, 1863, in San Francisco, California, the only child of George Hearst, a self-made multimillionaire, and Phoebe Apperson Hearst. He attended Harvard University but never graduated. He became “proprietor” of the San Francisco Examiner in 1887, which was owned by his father. William acquired the New York Morning Journal in 1895 but shortened the title to New York Journal in 1901. Inspired by Joseph Pulitzer, owner of the New York World, Hearst transformed the personality of his newspapers by combining investigative reporting and sensationalism. He believed in creating the news rather than simply reporting it. He built a journalistic power-house by expanding his empire horizontally into syndicated features; photograph wire services; magazines; newsreels; serial, feature, and animated films; ...