Hearst, William Randolph (1863–1951)

US newspaper publisher, famous for his introduction of banner headlines, lavish illustration, and the sensationalist approach known as ‘yellow journalism’. A controversialist and a strong isolationist, the film Citizen Kane (1941) was based on his life. He was also a Hollywood producer as well as an unsuccessful presidential candidate. He collected art treasures, antiques, zoo animals, and castles – one of which, San Simeon (Hearst Castle), California, became a state museum and zoo.

Born in San Francisco, California, the son of George Hearst, a US senator and gold-mine owner, Hearst took over the San Francisco Examiner from his father in 1887. Within ten years its circulation had quadrupled to nearly 100,000. Hearst, who had modelled the newspaper on the journalistic techniques of Joseph Pulitzer, then moved further into the USA's newspaper market; he acquired the New York Morning Journal in 1895 and launched the Evening Journal in 1896. Hearst began a fierce circulation war with Pulitzer, using a blend of investigative (into monopolies and corruption), sensational (articles about crime), and jingoistic reporting.

One of Hearst's most notorious campaigns is said to have pushed the USA into war with Spain over Cuba in 1898; the Hearst press accused Spain of sinking the US battleship Maine in Havana and other actions. He also employed some of Pulitzer's most talented journalists, including the cartoonist, US illustrator Richard F Outcault whose popular drawings featuring the Yellow Kid became a symbol of competitive and sensational newspaper practices and are believed to be the source of the term ‘yellow journalism’.

From 1890, Hearst began to acquire newspapers in Chicago, Illinois, and Los Angeles, California. By the late 1920s he owned 25 dailies in 17 major US cities with a combined circulation of over 5 million. To this he added magazine publishing, which included the titles Cosmopolitan, Good Housekeeping, and Harper's Bazaar, and was responsible for developing the International News Service, a press agency which syndicated articles to all his papers. He also began producing newsreels, later controlling the Hearst Metrotone newsreel company and the Cosmopolitan Movie Company, which made several features starring US dancer Marian Davies and Hollywood stars such as Greta Garbo and Joan Crawford.

Hearst's political career was less successful. Elected to the US House of Representatives as a Democrat from New York State in 1903 (and 1905), he narrowly failed to win the party nomination as presidential candidate in 1904; he also unsuccessfully ran for mayor of New York City in 1905 (and 1909) and governor of New York State in 1906. Hearst later opposed US participation in World War I and condemned the British Empire and the League of Nations. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, Hearst was forced to sell parts of his various collections and to reduce his holdings in some of his newspapers. He established the Hearst Foundation Inc., in 1945 and the California Charities Foundation in 1948.