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helped form what is now an international operation known as Hearst Magazines. He later produced other magazines such as the Cosmopolitan, Harper’s Bazaar, Town and Country, House Beautiful and Good Housekeeping. Hearst continued his interests in communications and his company was the first print-media company to enter the radio broadcasting business in the 1920s. He was a major producer of movie newsreels and started the legendary newsreel production company, Hearst Metrotone News in 1929. Then in the 1940s, he entered the television business. At the peak of his fortune in 1935, he owned twenty-eight major newspapers, eighteen magazines, several radio stations, movie production companies and news services.
Meanwhile, Hearst, like his father, had political ambitions. He was elected twice as a Democrat into the United States House of Representatives to represent New York from 1903 to 1907. In 1904, he strived for the Democratic nomination for President but failed to win. He ran for the mayor of New York City in 1905 but fell three thousand votes short for the win. His request to become governor of New York in 1906 failed. He lost to Charles Evans Hughes.
Once again, Hearst ran for the mayor of New York City in 1909 and suffered a huge defeat. He could not attain the offices he sought including the nomination for senator from New York in 1922. In 1927, he gave up on New York and moved to his enormous estate to California. This 240,000-acre estate, in San Simeon, was considered one of the most lavish private dwellings in the United States. Built in the 1920s, the estate fronted by fifty miles of ocean water, four majestic castles, containing a vast and priceless collection of antiques and art objects that he had brought in from Europe and all over the world. But the Great Depression of the 1930s seriously weakened his financial status.
He had to sell faltering newspapers and magazines. By 1937, he was forced to begin selling off some of his priceless art collection. After 1940, he had lost personal control of his vast communications empire that he had built. He lived the last few years of his life in isolation. Hearst died at about 9:50 on the morning of August 14, 1951, in Beverly Hills, California.
He lived to be 88 years old. All five of his sons followed their father into the media business. After Hearst’s death, there was a big question about the castle. In Hearst’s will, he wished that the castle, along with all the items within it including the priceless works of art, might go to the University of California as a memorial to his mother.
The University refused with thanks. They could not afford to maintain such a magnificent mansion. Likewise, the Hearst family and the Hearst Corporation directors were unenthusiastic about spending money on Hearst’s dream. A $30,000,000 castle that could neither be sold nor given away. Finally in 1957, the State of California accepted the castle as a gift.
ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF SUBJECT William Randolph Hearst was, at his time, a very powerful and brilliant young man. Being so wealthy and in such a status, he could have done anything he wished to do. Hearst had almost singled-handedly mastered and overshadowed the mass communications industry. At one point, he had dominated the mass media business by monopolizing the publication of newspapers and magazines. He also owned several radio stations and participated in film broadcasting by owning a movie production company.
In fact, he was a major producer of a movie newsreel then. In my opinion, his involvement in the communications business was almost second to none during his time. His introduction of the sensational journalistic style ( Yellow Journalism ) in the newspapers had fascinated and captivated many readers. People started to call him the “Father of Yellow Journalism.” He had influenced the Nation’s media with that kind of writing. He was brave enough to start revealing the corruption amongst the private and government entities. All the people involved in corruption lived in fear of Hearst because they were worried that Hearst might put them in the front page.
Some, because of Hearst, had stopped the act of corruption. In view of his extensive association and control over the Nation’s communications network, Hearst was considered one of the most influential persons during the period before the Spanish- American War. He was so persuasive that he was believed to be one of the people responsible for triggering the War. The Nation might not have gone into war with Spain if Hearst’s articles and radio talks had not been persistently persuasive on how the United States was being humiliated by Spain. A person like Hearst, in my opinion, could dominate the nation.
Phoebe Hearst would never have realized that she had given birth to a man who had the power to provoke a war. Although he failed in his political endeavors of being elected as a senator nor a mayor, he did play a significant role in effectuating a decision made by the politicians of the United States in declaring the Spanish- American War. Hearst was considered very successful in his life, in terms of his accomplishments and achievements in the mass media and journalism world of communications. If it were not Hearst’s ambitions and different strategies to pioneer his great journalism empire with diversified publications, inspirational, sensational and extensive color coverages, the newspaper today could be just a piece of paper with news printed in black and white. There would not have been a twist to the articles. CONCLUSION In conclusion, William Randolph Hearst, the founder of the Hearst Corporation, was a person that could dominate the nation by the stroke of his pen.
He started with a struggling newspaper, the San Francisco Examiner, and turned it into a prosperous publication within a few years. He also turned the unsuccessful newspaper, New York Journal, into the largest newspaper chain in the United States through a series of strategies. Not only did he had the largest chain of newspaper, he was also one of the largest owners of magazines. He had established a trademark of “Hearst’s journalism” and was nicknamed the founder of the “Yellow Journalism” during the Spanish-American War.
Despite his uneventful foray into politics, he remained throughout the decades as a very dominating figure, a great motivating publisher and an opinion maker. Not only did he just dominate the newspaper industry by owning 28 major publications, diversify his interests into owning 28 magazines, several radio stations, movie production companies and news services. He had succeeded in conquering the mass communications industry through excellent strategic moves. He was believed to be one of the persons who had provoked the declaration of the Spanish- American War. His persistent coverage on the Cuba events as well as his day-today articles on the USS Maine’s sinking persuaded the Americans to go into war with Spain. His articles and exaggerated stories had proved to be extremely influential to such an extent that the Government had no alternative but to make the war declaration.
With all the enormously exaggerated news articles and stores published during that period, he was given the nickname of “Father of Yellow Journalism.” He was a man full of innovative ideas and was definitely a very successful business man for decades, but because of the Great Depression, he was forced to sell his companies and later his art collections he brought from all over the world. After his death, San Simeon, Hearst’s 240,000 acre castle, was donated to the State of California as a State park. Biographies.
