William Randolph Hearst

Avoid using your media platform to pursue personal vendettas and political crusades that alienate customers, as this reduces circulation and advertising revenue.

Hearst's anti-communist and anti-Roosevelt campaign alienated readers during the Depression. Voters chose Roosevelt twice at the ballot box and Hearst at the newsstands by switching papers. His controversial positions, while expressing his authentic views, damaged his business fundamentals at a critical time.

“Readers forced to choose sides between the president and the publisher had voted twice, at the ballot box for Roosevelt and at the newsstands against Hearst.”

Maintain financial discipline by reducing spending proportionally when revenues decline, rather than hoping the economy will rebound and maintaining spending levels.

During the Depression, Hearst's newspapers suffered losses from circulation decline and advertiser boycotts due to his controversial political positions. Instead of cutting costs, he maintained or increased spending on art, antiques, real estate, and newspapers, betting the economy would magically rebound. This accelerated his financial crisis and forced creditors to seize control.

“Hearst, hoping that the economy would magically rebound, refused to listen.”

Avoid unconstrained spending and material accumulation, as the desire for endless possessions creates financial vulnerability and distorts decision-making.

Hearst spent decades accumulating art, antiques, real estate, and possessions across multiple continents without constraint. He compared himself to an alcoholic unable to refuse catalogs of items for sale. At age 70, this compulsive spending combined with debt refinancing forced him to liquidate his empire, losing control for eight to ten years.

“I'm afraid I'm a dipsomaniac with a bottle. They keep sending me these catalogs and I can't resist them.”

Do not confuse debt as a permanent tool for building wealth; understand that lenders will eventually refuse to refinance when debt grows beyond the cash flows that service it.

For 50 years Hearst believed debt was magical, a tool to build empires. He constantly refinanced old debts with new debt, avoiding hard choices about cost-cutting. When advertising revenues fell during the Depression and his newspapers stopped generating sufficient income, bankers refused to refinance because they no longer believed in his ability to repay.

“A penny saved might be a penny earned, but a penny borrowed was worth even more.”

Recruit and retain the best talent by offering multi-year contracts and job security, which was revolutionary for newspapers at the time.

While Pulitzer rapidly cycled through staff, Hearst offered experienced reporters and editors multi-year contracts with guaranteed security. This allowed him to poach Pulitzer's best talent and build a stable, high-performing newsroom that could execute his vision consistently.

“To persuade experienced newspaper men to join a venture everyone was convinced would fail, Hearst had to offer more than just big salaries. He had to guarantee security in the form of large multi-year contracts.”

Pay for top talent early and aggressively, even if your business is not yet profitable, because quality people are the only sustainable competitive advantage.

As a young man, Hearst repeatedly told his father that cheap labor had been entirely ineffectual and that quality talent required high salaries. He convinced his father to hire experienced journalists and editors away from Pulitzer, which transformed the Examiner from a provincial paper into a cosmopolitan publication.

“The paper must be built up and that cheap labor has been entirely ineffectual. The paper requires a head that has ability enterprise and experience. Naturally, such a man commands a high salary and you must reconcile yourself either to paying it or to giving up the paper.”

Do not delegate financial responsibility to subordinates while refusing to hear their warnings about unsustainable debt and spending patterns.

Hearst told his accountant Edward Clark to 'just find the money' to cover his obligations, similar to Howard Hughes Sr.'s approach. He ignored pleas from financial advisors to reduce spending, institute economy measures, and sell unprofitable assets. By refusing to engage with financial reality, he made the eventual crisis far more severe.

Maintain a calm, even-tempered demeanor with employees even during stress, as consistency and courtesy build loyalty and enable long-term working relationships.

Hearst was described by a 16-year employee as never showing signs of irritation or losing his temper, always offering congratulations for good work. This stood in sharp contrast to Pulitzer's fiery temperament and enabled Hearst to maintain multi-decade relationships with key staff who would not tolerate his predecessor's volatility.

“William remained calm, polite and well-mannered in the extreme. Not once did he ever show signs of irritation or lose his temper.”

Build a succession plan and share power before crisis forces it, as waiting until age 74 to address governance creates vulnerability when creditors demand change.

Hearst ruled autocratically for 50 years, trusting no one and refusing to name a successor or delegate decision-making. When bankruptcy approached, banks and paper mills refused to loan money as long as he controlled the company. He was forced to surrender control at age 74, losing autonomy during his final decades.

“For 50 years, Hearst had ruled his empire as autocratically as his heroes Julius Caesar and Napoleon had theirs. He had trusted no one, rejected suggestions that he share power or delegate decision making and refused to name his successor.”

Use visual design and illustrations to attract readers when newspapers are sold on the street where headlines and images compete for attention.

Hearst reduced column density, doubled headline size, and inserted large illustrations across multiple columns, following Pulitzer's innovations. This made the Examiner stand out from competitors when newsboys sold papers on street corners, directly increasing sales.

“Illustrations do not simply embellish a page. They attract the eye and stimulate the imagination.”

Resist the temptation to use newfound wealth to satisfy every impulse, as material possessions require ongoing maintenance costs and create obligations that constrain future freedom.

Hearst accumulated castles, art collections, and real estate across two continents, warehousing items he never examined. These properties generated enormous maintenance and construction costs that consumed capital needed to weather business downturns. His compulsive acquisitions ultimately forced him to liquidate at unfavorable times.

Operate from an inner scorecard focused on your own judgment rather than worrying about external criticism and social expectations.

Unlike his mother who cared deeply about society's opinions, Hearst maintained complete indifference to public opinion. He dated across social classes, avoided society functions, and spent nights in nightclubs with chorus girls, never adjusting his behavior to meet upper-class expectations. This freedom allowed him to operate according to his own vision.

“Complete indifference to public opinion”

Prioritize speed and urgency over perfection when trying to establish market dominance, as delays allow competitors to recover.

Hearst told employees that hesitation or stepping back would be fatal, emphasizing that all improvements had to happen at once so that the improvement would be very marked and noticeable. This created a sense of urgency that prevented competitors from adapting to his strategy.

“If we hesitate a moment or fall back a step, we are lost and we can never hope to make up anything out of the examiner while it remains in our hands. Delay would be as fatal as neglect.”

Use syndication and licensing agreements to access quality content you cannot yet afford to produce yourself.

Unable to afford European correspondents, Hearst contracted with the New York Herald to syndicate their cabled articles from Paris and other international locations into the Examiner. This gave the paper a cosmopolitan feel without requiring the capital investment in a foreign reporting infrastructure.

Expand your addressable market geographically when facing intense local competition rather than fighting for share in a saturated market.

San Francisco had three strong morning papers competing for the same 350,000-person audience. Instead of battling for circulation within the city, Hearst expanded the Examiner's distribution north to Sacramento and south to Santa Cruz and San Jose, creating new markets where he faced no competition.

Create synergy by repurposing content across multiple media properties to maximize the value extracted from each story and reduce per-unit costs.

Decades before synergy became a corporate buzzword, Hearst directed his magazine editors to buy stories that could be rewritten into screenplays for his film studio, serialized in newspapers and magazines, broadcast over radio, and pictured in newsreels. A single story could generate revenue across six different formats.

Use other people's successful models as a starting framework, then adapt and expand them for your own context rather than trying to innovate from scratch.

Hearst spent his college evenings studying Joseph Pulitzer's New York World instead of trying to invent his own approach. He then imported Pulitzer's techniques to San Francisco and expanded upon them with better circulation strategy, syndication agreements, and visual design. This allowed him to rapidly transform a failing newspaper into a success without reinventing journalism.

“I'm going to take Pulitzer's playbook. It obviously works. I'm going to adapt it to my business and then see if I can expand on it.”

Use unethical shortcuts and crony capitalism to gain unfair advantages, though this creates long-term vulnerability and reputational risk.

When facing distribution difficulties with the Central Pacific Railroad, Hearst asked his father to leverage his Senate position to get California's senior senator Leland Stanford to intercede. This gave him an unfair advantage but demonstrated his willingness to use family connections and federal power to bypass normal competition.