Grandson of Bay Area newspaper titan suffers stroke

By Donna Beth Weilenman
Staff Reporter

George Randolph Hearst Jr., 84, board chairman of the Hearst Corp. media company and eldest grandson of William Randolph Hearst, died Monday at Stanford University Medical Center, Palo Alto, from complications after he suffered a stroke, a company spokesperson said.

Hearst, who was also president of the Hearst Foundation and a director of the William Randolph Hearst Foundation, was born in San Francisco July 13, 1927 and began his career with the company in 1948. By 1958 was a vice president of Hearst Publishing Company, for which he served as a director for more than 53 years. He also was a trustee of the William Randolph Hearst Trust, established in that media giant’s will.

George Randolph Hearst Jr. had been a member of the San Francisco Examiner’s staff before becoming publisher of the Los Angeles Examiner, business manager and publisher of the Los Angeles Evening Herald-Express, publisher of the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner and vice president of the Hearst Corp. and head of the corporation’s real estate activities, the corporation said in a released statement.

“George was an enthusiastic supporter of the corporation’s growth and diversification strategies,” said Frank A. Bennack Jr., executive vice chairman and chief executive officer of Hearst Corp.

“Although always calling every situation as he saw it, George was the most supportive and steadfast chairman a CEO could possibly have. He will be greatly missed by everyone who had the pleasure of working with him.”

Hearst became the Hearst Corp. board’s leader in 1996, succeeding his uncle, Randolph A. Hearst, as head of the media dynasty that began in the Bay Area in 1880, when Hearst’s great-grandfather, George Hearst, bought the San Francisco Daily Examiner. Seven years later, George put his son, William Randolph Hearst, in charge of the Daily Examiner.

William Randolph Hearst took what was described as a “sedate” journal and expanded it into what he called “The Monarch of the Dailies.” In two years, circulation increased tenfold.

It was the beginning of the Hearst media empire. The publisher and editor bought more papers and founded a chain that spanned the country and introduced such innovations as multiple colors, improved picture printing and syndication of news stories.

In 1919, William Randolph Hearst began building the 150-room Hearst Castle at San Simeon, a project that took 30 years.

Prior to his own career with the Hearst Corp., George Randolph Hearst Jr. spent 10 years in the military, having joined the Naval Air Corps and serving in World War II. During the Korean War, he joined the Army and was a combat helicopter pilot.

After his military service, he joined the San Francisco Examiner, then worked as a staff member at the Los Angeles Evening Herald-Express and the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner before becoming a publisher.

The Hearst Corp., still a privately held media company, publishes the San Francisco Chronicle, which the Examiner joined in 1965; 15 other daily newspapers from New York to Texas; and dozens of weekly papers.

The company prints more than 300 diverse magazines, including Harper’s Bazaar, Cosmopolitan, Esquire, Car and Driver, Popular Mechanics, and Oprah Winfrey’s magazine, O. Besides Hearst Television Inc., through which the company operates almost 30 television stations and two radio stations, Hearst Corp. is a partial owner of A&E Networks and ESPN, and has multiple real estate holdings.

Hearst is survived by his widow, Susan, and her three children; his twin sister, Phoebe Hearst Cooke; his three children, George R. Hearst III, Stephen T. Hearst and Erin Hearst Knudsen; six grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren. His eldest child, Mary Hearst Ives, died in 2004.

Services will be private, and a celebration of Hearst’s life will be scheduled later, the company statement said.