Hearst group: landmarks
Landmarks
This chronology is indicative only. It covers -
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- beginnings (1863)
- Citizen Hearst (1905)
- peak (1929)
- second generation (1953)
- Argyle television (1994)
- Hearst-Argyle (1997)
Context is provided by the broader communications and media timeline on this site.
Beginnings
1863 William Randolph Hearst born
1884 leaves Harvard
1887 takes over San Francisco Examiner from father
1895 buys New York Morning Journal
1896 founds New York Evening Journal
1900 founds Chicago American, distributed by Moses Annenberg
1902 founds Chicago Morning American
1903-7 member of US House of Representatives
1903 launches first magazine, Motor
1903 marries Millicent Williams (1882-1974)
Citizen Hearst
1905 runs for mayor of New York city
1905 buys Cosmopolitan, then a popular fiction monthly
1906 unsuccessfully runs for governor of New York state
1907 founds Chicago Examiner (later merged with Herald as Herald Examiner)
1909 second unsuccessful run for mayor of NY
1910 founds The National Magazine Company
1911 buys Good Housekeeping
1912 buys Harper's Bazaar and Motor Boating & Sailing
1913 merger of San Francisco Call and Evening Post
1915 forms King Features Syndicate
1918 buys Chicago Record Herald
1919 buys Wisconsin Daily News in Milwaukee
1921 buys Seattle Post-Intelligencer
1922 founds Good Housekeeping UK
1922 Syracuse Telegram
1922 Oakland Post-Enquirer
1922 Rochester Journal
1922 Rochester Post-Express
1922 Washington (DC) Herald
1922 founds New York Daily Mirror
1923 Fort Worth Record
1923 Baltimore News
1924 buys Albany Times-Union
1924 Milwaukee Sentinel
1925 buys Town & Country magazine
1925 Syracuse Journal
1926 Pittsburgh Sun-Telegram
1927 buys Pittsburgh Gazette Times and Chronicle-Telegraph
1927 swaps Pittsburgh morning Gazette Times for Block's evening Sun
1927 Omaha Bee
1928 buys WSOE Milwaukee, first of radio stations
1928 Omaha News
1929 founds Hearst Metrotone News, newsreel production company
1929 buys San Francisco Bulletin
peak
1929 San Francisco Call & Post merged with Bulletin as Call-Bulletin
1931 buys radio WTAE (later WRYT) Pittsburgh
1931 buys Los Angeles Express from front man Paul Block
1934 buys House Beautiful magazine
1934 Baltimore Post
1934 buys KYA radio San Francisco
1935 buys WBAL radio, Baltimore
1939 sells Chicago American and Herald Examiner
1941 Citizen Kane
1946 buys Bowdoin paper mills
1948 launch of WBAL-TV, Baltimore, the 19th US tv station
1948 sells KYA radio
1951 W.R. Hearst dies at age 88
Second generation
1953 Hearst launches WLWT-TV Cincinnati, US's 20th TV station
1955 founds She
1956 founds WISN-TV
1957 founds WTAE-TV
1959 buys Avon Books
1959 International News Service merges with United Press as United Press International (UPI)
1959 San Francisco Call-Bulletin merged with News as News Call-Bulletin
1960 Block buys Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph from Hearst
1962 sells Milwaukee Sentinel to Journal Communications
1963 Harpers & Queen UK founded
1965 News Call-Bulletin merged with San Francisco Examiner
1972 Cosmopolitan UK
1972 Company
1980 buys United Technical Publications (including Floor Covering Weekly and National Auto Research; Eastern News Distributors and First DataBank)
1981 buys William Morrow books
1981 buys WDTN-TV Dayton from Grinnell
1982 buys Communications Data Services, magazine subscription-fulfillment company
1982 buys KMBC-TV Kansas City
1982 buys Redbook magazine
1982 sells Boston Herald American to Murdoch for US$1m
1984 founding partner in A&E and Lifetime Television cable networks
1984 buys Diversion magazine
1984 buys Texas newspapers including the Beaumont Enterprise and Laredo Morning Times
1985 Country Living launched
1986 buys Esquire magazine
1986 buys WCVB-TV Boston for US$450 million
1987 buys Houston Chronicle for US$375m
1987 launches Victoria magazine
1989 House Beautiful UK
1989 buys Phoenix Entertainment Group television production company
1991 takes 20% stake in ESPN
1992 Hearst and Dow Jones launch SmartMoney
1992 Hearst and MediaOne launch New England Cable News
1993 buys San Antonio Express-News
Argyle television
1994 Argyle television group founded, buys WNAC-TV Providence, WZZM-TV Grand Rapids and WAPT-TV Jackson
1994 Hearst buys Associated Publishing Company, publisher of yellow pages directories
1995 Argyle buys WGRZ-TV Buffalo, KITV-TV Honolulu (inc sub stations KMAU Wailuku, KHVO Hilo)
1995 Argyle goes public
1995 Hearst buys assets of Houston Post from MediaNews for US$120m
1996 buys Multilex data services in UK
1996 buys WTMV-TV Tampa, renaming it WWWB-TV
1996 founds KCWB-TV Kansas City
1996 Argyle buys KHBS-TV/KHOG-TV Fayetteville
1996 Argyle announces exchange of WZZM-TV and WGRZ-TV with Gannett for WLWT-TV Cincinnati and KOCO-TV Oklahoma City
1997 Hearst acquires WPBF-TV West Palm Beach
Hearst-Argyle
1997 Hearst broadcasting arm and Argyle merge as Hearst-Argyle Television
1997 Hearst-Argyle swaps WDTN-TV Dayton and WNAC-TV Providence for KSBW-TV Monterey-Salinas and WPTZ-TV/WNNE-TV Burlington
1997 Hearst-Argyle buys broadcast arm of Pulitzer Publishing (9 television and 5 radio stations)
1997 Hearst-Argyle buys Sacramento television stations of Kelly Broadcasting
1998 buys Medi-Span information services
1999 Hearst buys San Francisco Chronicle for US$660 million, sells Examiner (ultimately acquired by Anschutz' Clarity Media)
1999 establishes venture with Miramax Films to publish Talk
1999 sells William Morrow and Avon Books to Murdoch
1999 Hearst-Argyle buys 30% of Internet Broadcasting and takes stake in Geocast Network Systems
2000 sells three Phoenix radio stations to Emmis
2000 Gruner & Jahr sells UK arm (Prima, Best, Prima Baby, Focus, Your Home) to Hearst's National Magazines
2000 buys WMUR-TV, Manchester
2002 buys Veranda magazine
2003 launches Town & Country Travel
2003 buys Seventeen magazine and Cover Concepts from Primedia
2003 launches Lifetime magazine in partnership with Lifetime Entertainment Services (Hearst-Disney joint venture)
2003 buys ABC affiliate Portland WMTW-TV (launched 1954) for US$37.5m
2004 buys fund-raiser American Publishers Inc (founded 1987)
2004 buys Zynx Health
2004 launches Shop etc magazine
2006 agrees to acquire 20% stake in Fitch Group (parent of Fitch Ratings) for US$592m, along with aquisition of Algorithmics risk-management service
2006 buys handbag.com from Barclays for £22m