Formative years 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.
Peak era 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 the merger of the magazine
Hearst International with
Cosmopolitan in 1925. Despite some financial troubles, Hearst began extending his 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 the mid-1920s, purchasing the
Baltimore News (1923), the
San Antonio Light (1924), the
Albany Times Union (1924), In addition to print and radio, Hearst established
Cosmopolitan Pictures in the early 1920s, distributing his films under the newly created
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In 1929, Hearst and
MGM created the Hearst Metrotone newsreels.
Retrenching after the Great Depression 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 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, 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. 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 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 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
WBAL-TV in
Baltimore. The earnings of Hearst's three morning papers, the
San Francisco Examiner, 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 Tribunes owners, who changed it to the tabloid-size
Chicago Today in 1969 and ceased publication in 1974. In 1960, Hearst also sold 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 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 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, 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: 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 the pace of the company's demise, with the
Herald Examiner ceasing publication November 2, 1989.
Newspaper shifts 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 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 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. On November 8, 1990, Hearst Corporation acquired 20% stake of
ESPN, Inc. from
RJR Nabisco (now a subsidiary of
Mondelez International) for a price estimated between $165 million and $175 million. The other 80% has been owned by
The Walt Disney Company since 1996, ironically since some
Hearst-Argyle Television Stations are
ABC (Also owned by
The Walt Disney Company since 1996.) affiliates that also show ESPN games, it's been an all-around good equal partnership business for both companies. Over the last 25 years, the ESPN investment is said to have accounted for at least 50% of total Hearst Corp profits and is worth at least $13 billion. In 1993, Hearst closed the
San Antonio Light after it purchased the rival
San Antonio Express-News from Murdoch. In April 1995, Netscape Communications Corporation announced Hearst was part of a group of private investors who purchased stake in the company. On July 30, 1996, Hearst and the
Cisneros Group of Companies of Venezuela announced its plans to launch
Locomotion, a Latin American animation cable television channel, it eventually launched on November 1. On March 26, 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, while Hearst-Argyle Television bought the broadcasting division of
Pulitzer, Inc. for $700 million.
21st century In 2000, the Hearst Corp. sold 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 2006, Hearst acquired an interest in Fitch Group, a global financial services company. Hearst increased its ownership of Fitch Group to 80% in 2015, and to 100% in 2018. 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 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 a majority stake in
Litton Entertainment; Litton entertainment was rebranded as Hearst Media Production Group in 2022. 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 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 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 June 2020, Hearst Autos announced the acquisition of
Bring a Trailer, a digital auction platform and auto enthusiast community. 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 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, 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 Hearst Texas Austin Media was created to manage the titles along with the
Austin Daily newsletter which was created early that year. Hearst bought a majority of the
Motor Trend Group, including
Motor Trend and its
TV network counterpart,
Hot Rod, Roadkill, and Automobile, in December 2024. In August 2024, Hearst announced it would acquire QGenda, a provider of healthcare workforce management software solutions, from investment firms Francisco Partners and ICONIQ Growth. QGenda became the sixth business in the Hearst Health division following the acquisition of MCG (formerly Milliman Care Guidelines) in 2012, majority stakes in Homecare Homebase in 2013 and MHK (formerly MedHOK) in 2016. In July 2025, Hearst announced its purchase of the
Dallas Morning News. == Chief executive officers ==