EOTO #1

 

                                                           William Randolph Hearst

Early Life

  William Randolph Hearst was born on April 29th, 1863 in San Francisco. He was the only son of George Hearst who migrated West from Missouri, during the Gold Rush, and his mother Phoebe Apperson Hearst a former school teacher.  William attended Harvard College for two years, working as the business editor of the Harvard Lampoon. He was eventually expelled for sponsoring massive beer parties in Harvard Square to sending chamber pots to his professors.

                                                                                                                                                      

The Examiner

Williams's father wanted him to join the mining business but William determined to make his name in the newspaper industry. He convinced his father to give him control of the San Fransisco Examiner which George just won the election as a U.S. Senator in 1886, so he just acquired a platform for his political career.  At the age of 24 William Hearst used his family's money to hire top newspaper talent and adopted a sensationalist style, complete with catchy headlines and images that weren't like the normal traditional dull newspapers. While the Examiner had been losing money it began turning a profit within 3 years after William Hearst took over, it went from 5,000 to over 55,000 in circulation.  

The Morning Journal

In 1895 William Hearst headed to New York City where he purchased the failing Morning Journal. He began competing against Pulitzer for the attention and money of the working class, largely immigrant readers that had made the world the city's most popular newspaper of the era. During the progressive era, William Hearst went after trusts and government corruption, calling for better working conditions. The journal circulation climbed as William Hearst earned a reputation as a champion of working-class Americans against the elite. 

Presidential Run And Media Empire

Elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from New York in 1902 Hearst set his sights on winning the Democratic presidential nomination. The following year he married Millicent Wilson they had 5 sons. He also expanded his publishing empire, acquiring newspapers in Chicago, Los Angeles, and Boston. William Hearst lost the 1904 Democratic presidential bid to Alton B Parker who then lost to Roosevelt. William Hearst then ran for mayor of New York City and lost to Tammy Hall. He also had an unsuccessful run for governor in 1906. William Hearst would never again hold an elected office. Instead, he focused on his media empire, which soon included newspapers in nearly every major American city magazine such as Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping, Town and Country, and Harpers Bazar. William Hearst also went into the film business, producing weekly newsreels and dramatic films that were shown in theaters nationwide. He used his media platform to advocate for the U.S. to stay out of World War I which clearly didn't work. 

Late Life

Despite his earlier isolationist beliefs, William Hearst promoted the U.S. declaration of war on Japan and Germany following the Pearl Harbor attack. He used his newspapers to advocate for the forced internment of Japanese Americans, reflecting the anti-Asian prejudice that characterized much of his career. William Hearst emerged from financial difficulties with control over a still significant media empire. His health declined in the late 1940s, leading him and his wife to relocate from San Simeon to Los Angeles for better access to medical care. Hearst passed away in Beverly Hills on August 14, 1951, at the age of 88.