Hello. And welcome to how to take over the world. This has been Wilson. And today we are talking about William Randolph Hearst. He was really the first media mogul, the first person with a big multi-million dollar media empire.

His was primarily a newspaper business, but he also got into film, radio and a number of other businesses as well. And obviously as a podcast or media, something that I am interested in. So this episode is a little bit selfish as I was reading the story. You'll hear that I'm kind of reverse engineering in my brain, how to build a really successful media business.

So if that's something that's interesting to you. If you're engaged in media, if you're an influencer, a producer, a writer and editor, a celebrity, a media executive. , William Randolph Hearst was all of those things. So this is going to be the perfect episode for you. And it's also to me, a really interesting story of power. I'm giving you a little bit of a spoiler here, but there's this interesting story.

Where in Cuba tensions are boiling between the Spanish government, which owned Cuba at the time and the native Cubans who wanted to be independent. And there were some skirmishes and it's looking like things are at a boiling point. So William Randolph Hearst who owns a New York newspaper, sends a reporter to Havana.

The reporter gets there to fan out the capital of Cuba and he writes back to her complaining, you know,

there's all kinds of overblown. There's no actual fighting going on. Things have calmed down. There's nothing really exciting to report on.  And the reporter he's actually also an illustrator writes back and says, can I come back to New York? You know, there's nothing to do here. And her says, no, stay.

And he says, you furnish the pictures and I will furnish the war.  And within months, the United States was at war with Spain over Cuba.  Now it is a slight exaggeration to say that Hurst is the one who caused the Spanish American war. But, you know, at the time people believed that to be true. People believed the, he was the main force behind this war, the Spanish American war. And there are still people who believe that he was a major force behind. He was a major force behind it.

. In a democracy, the government is supposed to reflect the will of the people, the citizens, their desires, what they want. But what is it that they want and who is it that determines what they want? , the will of the people is not this freestanding independent thing that can't be influenced.

Obviously not right. Many things have an impact on popular opinion and nothing more so than news media. People have always known this. People still know this is why Jeff Bezos bought the Washington post or why Elon Musk bought Twitter, um, which is of course also a major source of news. So this is a story about how to become a media mogul, but also about how to turn that position of influence into power.

So let's get into it. Part one on the life of William Randolph Hearst after this quick break. 📍  

 Speaking of becoming a media mogul. If you're interested in media, if you're a creator or interested in becoming a creator, I've got a great resource for you. It's called creative elements. It's a podcast that goes behind the scenes with today's top creators. The host is Jay Klaus, and I know Jay, he's a great guy. He's super smart on this kind of stuff. He's interviewed guests like Tim urban, James clear Tori Dunlap and Cody Sanchez.

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through highly produced narrative interviews, Jay dyes, into the specifics of how these creators are building their audiences today. So, you know, if you're coming to how to take over the world to learn some of these timeless principles of how people did it in the past with creative elements, you're going to learn some of these tactics of what's working on the cutting edge right now.

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 William Randolph Hearst probably had the best childhood I've ever heard of. I certainly think he is who I'm most jealous of in terms of, when you talk about childhoods, he was born in 1863 to Phoebe and George Hearst.

And George Williams' father. Is a really interesting guy in his own, right. He could have his own episode of how to take over the world. He's born in Missouri. And, uh, his dad has a very small mind. He doesn't make a lot of money off of mining. But George, his son learns the business of mining and so 1849 happens. There's the gold rush to California. And George goes out to California and he uses that knowledge that he has.

To be smart about mining and strikes. It rich becomes a kind of minor millionaire in the gold rush in San Francisco.  So William Randolph Hearst is born in San Francisco to a fairly wealthy family in 1863.  And I say I'm jealous because you think about it. It's California. The weather is perfect. It's about 20 years after the gold rush. San Francisco is the United States ninth, largest city.

So it has all the amenities, culture, art that you could want. But it's still the wide open west. It's not fully filled in. It's not fully developed. It's not too crowded. And William. Uh, gets to enjoy this he's unbelievably doted on by servants, by maids and most of all by his mother. Uh, she just is obsessed with her son, William. This is a common theme, actually. Interestingly enough, a lot of these men are just like spoiled mama's boys, their mothers dote on them, like nothing else. And I don't know if that's because.

Doting helps them become great. I kind of doubt that. I think it's maybe more just that these are extremely charming people. They charm their mothers who can't help, but dote on them. So, I don't know where it comes from, but this certainly falls into a pattern. Phoebe Hearst is obsessed with her son. He can't get enough of him.

And part of that is because he's an only child. She actually wants more children. But George is like a true mining, man. He's always going all over the country. He's in Idaho. He's in  Wyoming, Montana, Utah, all over the Western United States, Canada and Mexico. Looking for mines. And Phoebe actually follows him around a lot and is trying to get him to have children with her, but they never managed to, and Williamson only child.

Perhaps, because he almost never sees his father. William acts out for attention. And he's something of a prankster he's always getting into trouble. He throws a cobblestone through his dancing instructors window. He ties a string of lights around the tail of a neighbor's cat. And imagine this before electric lights. So I think this is like candles that he's tying around his neighbor's cat's tail.

He takes a toy cannon. Which is supposed to be just a toy. But he fills it with real gunpowder and he shoots a pigeon from his hotel window. So he's a major prankster and is often getting into trouble as a kid. This is another common theme, by the way, if you remember Steve jobs, famous prankster as a kid, Thomas Edison, always doing these pranks with electricity.

If you want to find where the really talented and successful people in an industry are, look for the pranksters. Common theme for whatever reason.  So through all this, the hearse are rich, but not that rich. And they're a little bit boomer bust. Or there are fortunes can go up and down.  That changes when William is 10 years old.

Um, in 1873, his mother takes him on an 18 month tour of Europe. He learns French and German. And becomes obsessed with trying to collect antiques. , it's a great trip, but when they get back. They find that they do not have a house. George lost everything in a bad mining deal and they have to go take up at a boarding house.  

That's a nice boarding house. It's not like they're homeless. But still no more servants? Uh, no, no more nannies. It's a big change for them.  And they're not poor. , How do I explain this? They are still in a certain social class, right? So they're not poor. They're broke. There's a difference, right? Between poor and broke.

So they're broke for the next three years. They basically have no money.  And then again,   it's really more like four or five years later when William is 14 or 15, George finally strikes it. Big big. So if before they were minor millionaires, now they are. Major millionaires. They are one of the richest families in the United States. He has more money than you could ever want in your entire life. So yeah, their lives change at that point.  

So William, , when the time comes, is able to go to Harvard because they're, upper-class now. And as a freshman at Harvard, you can tell, okay, this guy is special. He rises to the top of the best clubs, clubs.

Are something that's really big at Harvard, a big part of the social scene there. And back then,  There was no like, oh, this club's a little different. I like this vibe. I'll choose this club. No, the clubs were actually ranked top to bottom. So the best clubs and the worst clubs and everyone wanted to get into the best clubs.

And so William is able to navigate his way. To the top of the very best clubs at Harvard and part of the way that he does this is by spending an extravagant amount of money. He parties a really hard. He keeps the alcohol flowing for all his friends, anyone who wants to come to his apartment and party.

Is free and welcome to do so.  

He also spends liberally on the university itself. So Harvard is different at this time from, from what it is now, you don't have all these official organizations. So for example, the crew team, the baseball team, the football team, These are all funded by the student body. And these are people just, you know, students chipping in money.

And then the players go out and buy themselves uniforms. It's not tightly controlled and regulated. Like the NCAA is now in college sports.  And so William, as a student with a very rich father is the top booster, the top funder of many of these sports.  

So that's his freshman year. He gets involved in all this stuff, gets into the best clubs and does very well academically. His sophomore year. One of the main things he does is he takes over at the Harvard Lampoon. Which is a comical newspaper at Harvard. It's known even today as a very famous comedic newspaper.

Has a very long storied history and William Randolph Hearst is a big part of that history. , when he showed up, it actually was not this great thing. , his quote about it is that it was always late and not always funny.  And so he wants to change that. And he comes in. And he's expected to fund the paper as the president of the newspaper. And he certainly has the resources to do that, but he doesn't want to, he actually wants to turn it around so it doesn't need funding. And he goes out, he sells more subscriptions to alumni. He pounds the pavement to get more sales for ads to carry in the newspaper.

He improves the writing by finding good writers to make sure that it's actually funny and that it comes out on time and that people want it. And so he goes out and start talking to more advertisers and he ends up increasing the revenue by 300% and increases the circulation by 50%. So he comes into the Harvard Lampoon. It has a deficit of $200 and he takes it to a surplus of $650.

As he started to see. Okay. You know, this is just a sophomore in college, but this is someone who knows how to run a media property, knows how to run a newspaper.

And he does this very well. But maybe he does it too. Well, he he's so involved with all these various things that college that his academics really start to fail.  He starts doing very poorly. And he kind of can't be bothered to care much.  He's like a big man on campus. He's funding, all these things. He becomes the president of the inter collegiate baseball association.

So like this big association, he's in charge of all the games that are happening. , All the college baseball games that are, that are happening essentially the United States. And so he doesn't really have time to study and he doesn't care to study. And, um eventually he gets put on suspension.

And like I said, he can't be bothered to care. So he needs to study some more and take some tests to prove that he's ready to come back to Harvard and he just won't do it. He won't study. So eventually the faculty at Harvard say, okay,

You're gone and they kick them out.  

Now while he was at Harvard. , two things that happened. One is he had started reading this newspaper, this new newspaper, New York called the world. Let's start by Joseph Pulitzer and it was kind of taking the newspaper scene by storm. ,

it was a different kind of newspaper than people had seen before. And he loves it. So he reads the world every single day. And he's starting to get immersed, you know, between his experience of running the Harvard, Lampoon and reading the world.

He starts to get excited about this newspaper business. And also at the same time his father had bought a newspaper called the San Francisco examiner out in San Francisco. Not really as an investment, it lost money every year, but he bought it because he was politically active, politically interested. He was the main Democrat out in California.

The California was mostly a Republican state at the time, but George Hearst. Is sort of the democratic party in California and newspapers were a great way to organize support, get your voice out there. So George buys the San Francisco examiner. But he doesn't have time to do anything with it. Right. He's a mining man. He's also in the state legislature. So he's just kind of.

Letting this newspaper run itself. And it's not doing a good job of running itself. It's kind of a third rate newspaper.  And William who was in the process of getting kicked out of Harvard thinks, well, this is a great opportunity so he starts reading his father's paper and he's not impressed with what he finds. He writes back to his dad.

It is a positive insult to our readers to set before them such pictures of repulsive deformity as these and yet such abortions are not entirely out of place in an article that comes to a climax with a piece of imbecility. So detestable that it would render the death of the writer, justifiable homicide.  

So you can tell, this is someone who really cares about the content of this newspaper really cares about. , good writing and it really bothers him. That the examiner is so bad. So in 1886, it's a big year will turns 23. His father gets elected to the Senate. And at the same time will moves out to San Francisco to take over the examiner.  

Expectations were very low. It's a third rate newspaper in America's ninth, largest city. And it's being taken over by a billionaires Playboy son. And will was a Playboy. When he comes back, he moves to Sausalito,

which is across the bay from San Francisco, it's across the golden gate bridge today. But of course at the time, The golden gate bridge hadn't been built yet. So he actually has to sail to work every day. He's living with a waitress who he met in Cambridge. And I say a waitress, but she's, um,  Uh, I mean,

She served a very specific clientele. Let's say, um, she, she, wasn't a prostitute.  But she, wasn't not a prostitute. Right? She was. Uh, one of these women who kind of, uh, like to come into the orbit of, of rich men and, , and get paid. So not a woman of good repute. And so he's living with her. He's sailing every day to San Francisco.

And people think, all right, this Playboy guy, there's no way he's serious about this, but the newspaper men of San Francisco had no idea. What was about to hit them because will was not content to just be a Playboy who was babysitting a third-rate newspaper and waiting for his inheritance. He had some big plans for the examiner.

We'll find out what those were after this quick break. 📍  

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So the biggest newspaper in San Francisco was the San Francisco Chronicle. It actually still is and was back then too, and we'll want it to beat them. But that was going to be tough because they were a first rate operation with great reporting, strong financial backing from the wealthy D young family.

Will's first move at the examiner. Is brilliant. He takes a look and realizes, all right, it's going to take a lot of work before I can get on the level of the Chronicle. So how do I jumpstart things? So, what he does is he licenses content from a big New York newspaper, the New York Herald.

So now he's getting top rate news from the east coast. And makes them seem like a top newspaper, right? He's getting this great reporting. No one had actually done this before. Everyone had just done their own original reporting. No one else was licensing content from other east coast newspapers. So the fact that he's carrying articles from a New York paper with offices all over the world.

Makes people say, okay, this is cool. This is something different. And so,  Readership goes, it goes way up. The Chronicle sees this and says, okay, we've got a copy of this kid. We can't let him just beat us this way. So they also start licensing content. , from a New York newspaper, they contract with the world, which I had already talked about.  

, and so the Chronicle. , contracts with the world and that makes them once again, kind of the juggernaut right there, the biggest San Francisco newspaper, and they are contracted with the biggest New York newspaper.  So this strategy has a vaulted Hurst up to second place in San Francisco, but he's still well behind.

So that's when he gets to work really pushing forward with his own original content, he makes the headlines bigger, catchier, more salacious, more kind of what today we might call clickbait. But it's not just clickbait. He's also increasing the quality of the cartoons, the illustrations, getting better printing presses to make the tight neater and more attractive.

He starts experimenting with original reporting in new and interesting ways. He does stunt reporting. When a hospital is supposedly abusing patients, he has one of his reporters fake a leg injury and get admitted to the hospital and comes back and reports that indeed this hospital was neglecting and abusing their patients.

So he's doing this kind of stuff. He's also experimenting with different stories to see what catches on. And ends up finding out that crime really moves papers.  You've probably heard the saying, if it bleeds, it leads. And that Hurst definitely believed that. So crime stories go from 10% of the examiners headlines when he takes over to then 26% by the end.  

The other big thing, he does probably the most important thing he does. Is he starts to acquire. Unbelievable talent. And he's paying them 50% more than the Chronicle.  

So anytime that he sees a great writer, Or he reads anything and thinks, wow, I love that. He goes out and, uh, it's funny. He's like collecting these people.  

His whole life. He was a great collector. He loved to collect antiques and paintings. I'm an art. And for him. I think these. , For him, I think. These writers were art and he liked to collect them as well. So he's collecting some of these great writers, not only in California, but throughout the United States.

And you can see how much it matters to them. There's this one story. One of the great writers, he's this kind of reckless guy. , who loves to criticize the government in California and he lives out in Oakland. Which is across the bay from San Francisco.  And the bay bridge, which connects San Francisco to Oakland today did not exist yet. So it's kind of a hike to get out to Oakland.

You have to take the ferry and it's a whole big process.  And this writer is in his house in Oakland and someone knocks at the door and it's this kid. And he walks up and says, Hey kid, what do you want? And he says, I come from the examiner. I want to talk to you about a writing job. And this writer says, oh, you come from Mr. Hearst. And he says, I am Mr. Hurst.

And he can't believe it because no one expects the owner of the newspaper to come all the way out to Oakland. To talk to this guy to try and hire him. , but he loved writing. And that was the most important thing to him to have great content. And it gave him an advantage because, you know,

because Michael D. Young, who is a millionaire and owns the Chronicle, I can guarantee you that the owner of the San Francisco Chronicle was not going out to Oakland to visit writers, to try and recruit them to his newspaper. So something that gives her some advantage that he cares so much. And the results of this are astounding. He discovers and helps promote some of the greatest writers in American history.

So he discovers Jack London. He discovers Ambrose Bierce he's not as well-known as Jack London, but,  also a great writer. , he definitely didn't discover mark Twain, but he was early in his career and really helped boost him.

So look, I think one of the reasons that Hearst consistently won. Is that. He loved. The game for the sake of it. He loved newspaper as an art. He loved writing. He wasn't just doing it for the money.

Another thing that he does is use his dad's position and wealth to advance the business. So in one instance, He wants the newspaper to go to places other than San Francisco. So nearby communities, towns, cities like Sacramento, a little farther north Monterey, a little further south.

And so in order to get his newspapers distributed to these other towns and cities, he needs help. He needs them to be carried on the train on the railroad. But the trains won't carry the newspaper. I couldn't find out exactly why I think it's either. You know, trains were full. They didn't have enough room or maybe they already had a deal with the Chronicle.

And maybe they had like a non-compete clause. Like they couldn't carry the examiner. But they're saying we won't carry it for whatever reason. And so he complains to his dad and says, dad, you know, the other Senator is Leland, Stanford, the guy who owns the trains. So can you talk to Stanford and get my newspaper on these trains so we can start to distribute it elsewhere?

So dad talks to Stanford and he makes it happen.

In another instance, he looks around and realizes, Hey. All these big businesses in San Francisco. Our advertising with the Chronicle and not with the examiner. And that's pretty messed up. Cause my dad's pretty important that they probably own favors.

And so he writes to his dad and he says, and this is a quote. As these sons of bitches are principally indebted to you for whatever they have. I think that it is the goddamned as low down business I have ever heard of. I don't apologize for the swear words for, I think the circumstances, excuse them. Now, if you'll Telegraph a hot telegram to withdraw all your business from these firms.

And not give them any more until they advertise in the examiner and not in the Chronicle. I think we can accomplish something.  

And of course his father obliges, and they're able to shake loose a lot of these advertisers and get some more money for the Chronicle.  

And so the effect of all this is that the newspaper slowly starts to gain on the Chronicle. And before long. People just can't deny anymore. The examiner is the best newspaper in San Francisco. It's better than the Chronicle. And then in 1890, they finally surpassed them to become the top newspaper in California.

And in 1890, they become profitable for the first time. For four years.  William Hearst had just been burning money to create this amazing thing. He's paying these writers, all this money. And it's only four years later that it finally becomes profitable.

This is a great business achievement for him to have become the biggest newspaper in San Francisco. But I think it's an even bigger artistic one. That's what he cared most about. One of his writers was a woman named Winnifred black. And here's what she had to say about this collection of great writers that worked at the San Francisco examiner. She said the examiner was a place full of geniuses.

I love that quote, a place full of geniuses. Nowhere. Was there ever a more brilliant and more outrageous, incredible, ridiculous, glorious set of typical newspaper people than there was in that shabby old newspaper office.  So I do think there's something to be learned there, which is you never lose.

By spending whatever it takes to get all the best people under one roof. That's a strategy that seems to work. Time and time again.  

So in 1890 will has one San Francisco. But that year, everything changes. , his father dies.

And when they opened the will. , he's embarrassed to hear that all of the money had been left to Will's mom, Phoebe.  William Randolph Hearst receives zero inheritance. Now of course, that money is all going to come to him eventually when his mom dies, but as a vote of no confidence from beyond the grave from his father.  

There were a couple of reasons that his dad might have done this. One is this waitress who he lives with. Okay. That was always embarrassing to his parents and showed that maybe he was not ready to be mature, to grow up and be an adult.  And then the other thing. Was his spending. So as I said, in 1890, the newspaper was finally profitable and very valuable, but he wasn't paying himself a salary.

From the newspaper, he's actually still basically collecting an allowance, except for it's an allowance of like a million dollars a month. He's spending extravagantly. On his own life and his own lifestyle.  

And so his parents still kind of see him as a kid, even though he's having these successes. And so I think this is sort of a posthumous insult from his father and it's what inspires him. In 1891 to say, okay. I am going to go shopping for a newspaper in New York.  He felt he needed to prove himself even further. He had one in the minor leagues in San Francisco. America's ninth, biggest city, but New York was the biggest. That was the major leaks.  

And now he's following a playbook that was set out by Joseph Pulitzer. Pulitzer was the biggest newspaper man in America. At the time he had started out in St. Louis and he had one St. Louis in the same way that will had one San Francisco he'd built up the biggest newspaper in St. Louis. And then he had decided to go over to New York and try to take over that industry.  

And he did he succeeded? As I said, the world became a sensation, became the biggest and best newspaper in the world. And others had since tried to copy that playbook. They had, you know, after they had become the biggest newspaper in their little provincial city, they'd moved to New York and tried to start a new newspaper to compete with the world. And basically all of them failed.  

And one of these people who had failed was a guy named McLean. And he had a newspaper called the New York morning journal. And it was not doing well. Uh, he basically had burned out and realized, all right, I can't do this. I can, I can't compete with Pulitzer. And so he decides to sell his, his newspaper and so Hearst, swoops in and buys it for $150,000.

And just like in San Francisco, his chances look grim at first , the consensus. Of the newspaper men in New York was that Hurst had bought 11. Not just because it's a bad newspaper, but because come on. He's not going to be to compete here. Here's what one newspaper man wrote about the prevailing attitudes when Hearst came to New York. He said he was ridiculed for his youth and assurance and sneered at as a rich man's son rushing in where angels fear to tread. He was both pitied and jeered. When it leaked out that he had bought the journal.  

You got to understand that. The world was already cool and innovative. It was the greatest paper run by Joseph Pulitzer. Who was this wheeling and dealing hot shot. Going to New York and trying to compete with the world would be like some young entrepreneur trying to think of what businesses start and deciding, you know, I'm going to start a search engine. I'm gonna go head to head with Google.  

. The guy uses that phrase where angels fear to tread, like you just didn't go toe to toe with Pulitzer. He beat everyone. He was shameless in his headlines. He was ruthless in his tactics. And he was really innovative in his reporting. The world was the best it was unassailable and everyone knew it.

But Will's going to try anyway. He didn't believe any of that. So his first move when he gets to New York is to bring some of his best reporters and writers from San Francisco. One of the writers wrote that they were depressed to be moving east. You know, New York is supposedly the best city in the world, but they loved San Francisco.

They love the freedom, the wide open spaces. And so they're not excited to be going to New York. But he wrote, we would've gone to the Fiji islands or Greenland's icy mountains. If the big chief had wanted to send us to either of those probably delightful, but rather remote places.  

So you can see from this, that his writers were incredibly loyal to him.  They would have gotten. I see this guy saying they would've gone anywhere in the world for him. He appreciated their value. He paid them very well. And not only that, but he created a really great fun place to work and he pushed them to do their best work. They were accomplishing things at the San Francisco examiner, but they had never accomplished in their careers before. So, so they loved William Randolph Hearst.  After bringing in some of his best writers, the next thing he does. Is who quickly looks at the situation and says, okay.  

I have to differentiate myself. I can't just be another really good newspaper. Because the world already exists and it's already good. So if I just do that, then I'm going to be the second great newspaper and no one's going to pay any attention. Why would I subscribe to the, to the journal if I'm already subscribed to the world?

So, , he looks at it and says, okay, well, all the best newspapers. Charge 2 cents there to send papers. There were also 1 cent papers, but these were generally a low quality. Little rags. And so will says, okay. I'm going to fill this niche. Of being the only newspaper that is. As good as a 2 cent paper, that is a extremely high quality well-reported newspaper.

But I'm only gonna charge 1 cent. So I'm going to be 2 cent quality paper, one set cost.  And the only reason he can do this is because he's got his father's fortune, so he can afford to lose money for a number of years. And that's what we'll have to do. So he's dumping money into this paper that is.

The cost as much as two sent papers to operate, but only has a price of 1 cent.

So he goes through this strategy, it brings in his writers and it goes about using the same playbook as the examiner. He's trying to make the journal the best paper in town. He's writing better, bigger headlines than they had previously had improving the quality of the illustrations. Start poaching, really good writers from other newspapers in New York city.

And, um, yeah, he's just generally creating a great paper.

William always believed there was no substitute for quality, for great writing.  

And I say great writing, but there was sort of this interesting dichotomy of on the one hand. Like, like Jack London. , mark Twain, like great literary prose in these newspapers. And great journalists doing great reporting. While at the same time, there's all this typical yellow journalism stuff of like sensationalizing stories, exaggerating them sometimes just making stuff up, doing these totally bombastic click baity headlines.

And, , I guess William Randolph Hearst never saw any contradiction in this. He did. The stuff that he had to do. . In order to get eyeballs on the paper. And then once you really got into that paper, that's where you would find the great writing and the great recording. , so he's doing that. He's doing both at the same time and really bringing up the level of the journal.  

He's making it impossible to ignore, and he is. Making up ground because of his strategy he's gaining , on the world.  And as he's doing this, he's making a splash. Everyone's paying attention to him. And Pulitzer freaks out. And so he makes one huge mistake. And that is  he's looking at the journal and it's rising. And he gets nervous and he says, okay.  Well, Then, I guess we have to adopt their strategy. We also have to be a 1 cent newspaper in order to go in and snuff them out.  

And you can see the logic, right? The only reason that people are going to the journal over the world, this is a 1 cent paper, same, same level of quality, but it's a 1 cent paper.  

But what he doesn't consider is that once he does this, he doesn't have the high ground anymore. He can no longer claim to be, you know, the old storied world. . The indisputed best newspaper in the world. No, he's getting down on their level. And William Randolph Hearst really seizes on this. Uh, he, he puts out a big editorial.

And says, uh, it's called a reluctant convert.

And says welcome to the arena of the one sent papers, you know, ,

so nice of you to take inspiration from us, so nice of you to copy us. And that is what it looks like. It looks like the world is copying the journal and now it seems like the journal is the world's leading newspaper. It's it's the one that is setting the agenda and that people are copying.

And so actually when people answer does this. Uh, , Hurst can see that. Wow. They're weak right now. I'm going to move in for the kill. And that's what he does. He goes straight for their throat. He starts hiring. All of the best writers from the world. And he's telling these people. I will pay you whatever I have to pay you to get over to the examiner. And when I say all the best writers, I mean, he is hiring tons of people from the world.

And he's able to do so. Uh, not just because he's paying tons of money because whenever he does this, actually Pulitzer comes in and says,  I will pay you guys. Whatever Hurst offers I'll match it. But. Pulitzer was not able to create the same. Work environment. The Hurst was

pilots or like things to revolve around him.

He liked to be able to hire and fire people at will. He thought he was the genius. He was the one who came up with the headlines. He was the one who came up with the strategy. And so he didn't value writers in the same way that Hearst did. And so they could tell, they were, could tell that they were replaceable.

And Hurst is offering them these long multi-year contracts. He's saying not only will I pay you well, but I'll pay you well for a long time. I really value you. You're going to be here for a long time. Give you all the stability that you want. And so all these writers say yes, And he,

so we pilfer is the world and brings all these great writers to the journal.

One newspaper at this time wrote that they wouldn't be surprised if the labor authorities got involved. They said, quote, he is a monopolist of talent. Whenever he sees a brilliant intellect sparkle. He wishes to wear it on the bosom of the journal.

And so at this point, Pulitzer. I can see which way the wind is blowing. And so he fully goes into alright. We're just going to copy everything that hurts. Does. And so he actually starts looking around for a spy. Um, he starts offering a bounty, anyone who works at the office of the journal, who's willing to come spy for us. And so he gets some spies inside the journal.

He starts copying him exactly in everything. So there's this one yellow cartoon character that is in the journal. Pilzer. Hires at different artists too.  Draw cartoons of the exact same character.  So, this is actually when the term yellow journalism,  comes into, into play because there are two newspapers that are running the same cartoon of this little yellow guy.

And so they all have this yellow guy on their front page. That's called yellow journalism.  Now, all of this kind of bring Hearst and Pulitzer into a tie.  The journal is on the level of the world.  But then there are two things that break that tie.

The first is the campaign of William Jennings, Bryan.  Brian was this real firebrand fiery speaker. It's radical leftist. He's kind of a prodo socialist.  And he was a Trump-like figure in many ways. He was very popular with a lot of people who felt marginalized. Frankly popular with many of the same people with whom Trump was popular.

He was a firebrand, a great public speaker, and he was taboo amongst high society. He was persona non grata, endorsing, or being affiliated with him was social suicide.

Now William Jennings, Bryan is a Democrat. And both the world and the journal we're democratic papers.  But because he was so controversial, basically every New York democratic paper did not endorse him. In 1896. , they all declined to do so, except for William Randolph Hearst and the journal Hurst decides that.

He's a democratic paper. And so he's going to stand for the Democrat. And there's intense pressure not to do this. Advertisers pull their advertising. All his wall street buddies are complaining and saying this, this is horrible. You can't do this.

Hearst. Uh, later ran an editorial in the journal that read editorial guns, raked us business guns shattered us popular guns, battered us. And above the din and flame of battle, the curses of the wall street crowd that hated us advertisers called on me and said they would take out every advertisement. If I continued to support Brian.

And I told them to take out their advertisements as I needed more space in which to support him.  So you can see how passionate he is. These advertisers say, look, man, if you don't stop supporting Brian, we're going to cancel our ads. He says, cancel your ads. I need more space to support Brian with.

So he's very intransigent about this.  

And this does lead to a short term loss in advertising revenue, but it leads to a huge uptick in the number of subscribers.  They're getting a massive number of scribers at this time. And there are two reasons for that. One is William Jennings. Bryan was very popular with a certain crowd, especially the working class. And there's only one newspaper that supports him. And so of course, if you support William Jennings, Bryan, you're going to go subscribe to the journal.

And then the other thing is that even people who didn't necessarily love William Jennings, Bryan. You know, they maybe weren't huge fans. They still wanted to follow what was happening with his campaign. Again, it's a little bit like the Trump phenomenon. If you remember, in 2016, it definitely was not only Fox news that was covering Trump.

CNN MSNBC,  nonstop. We're covering Trump because everyone wants to know.  What will this guy say next?

And so that is happening here. People want to follow the Brian campaign, even if they aren't supporters. And there's only one place where they can go to get that information. And that's because the journal had great access to the William Jennings Bryan campaign. Because they were the only. Newspaper who endorsed him. And so what ended up happening is they were basically.

, the Brian campaign's headquarters in New York, you know, they essentially worked hand in hand with the Brian campaign. They had all the latest and best information about his campaign. And so lots of people were very interested in this.

William Jennings, Bryan ends up losing the election, but even afterwards it represents kind of a shift. For the New York journal.  And it's a shift from being just a normal newspaper. To being. Almost like an activist organization. It's a little difficult to explain. But, so for example, Uh, this is the age of trusts and monopolies and a lot of corruption in the United States.  

And in one of these instances of corruption,  

There is a contract that gets given out in New York city to this well-connected guy. And he's supposed to tear up a street and install some gas mains, but these gas mains are totally unnecessary. Those guys can tear up a street and fill it in again for no reason whatsoever, other than it's just a contract to put some money in his pocket.  

So the journal hires a lawyer and goes to the Supreme court and files an injunction to have this process stopped and it does, it works. And so of course they report on it and they report on themselves as the heroes of this story.

, around this time they adopt the motto while others talk. The journal acts. And so they're not just reporting the news. They're making the news. And that's very important because it generates exponentially. More interest than just reporting on the news.  

So that is one thing that starts to vault the journal ahead of the world. And then the other thing is the Spanish American war. Which I referenced a little bit at the beginning. So there had been simmering discontent in Cuba. Uh, the Spanish owned the country of Cuba.

And the Cubans were interested in independence.  So there's a revolution. Uh, in 1868 and then it doesn't really go anywhere. It's kind of simmering for a long time. And then in 1895, It really starts to break out. And, um, that's because of some economic factors and economic headwinds in Cuba. So there's a lot of discontent

there are minor skirmishes with the government. And so Spain cracks down. They send in the army conduct mass arrests. They set up concentration camps, people are dying. It looks horrible. And the journal is breathlessly reporting. This whole thing.

And it looks like. A full-scale civil war could break out in Cuba at any time.

And her son immediately seizes on this. He sends a reporter in 1895. This is the famous story that I told at the beginning of the reporter going and writing back and saying, Hey, nothing's going on? And he says, Hey, you furnished the pictures, all furnished the war. And I think what he's actually talking about is not that he's going to cause the United States to get into war with Spain.

You basically saying we'll make up the stories. Not that I have a way to manage, to get the U S government into this war on my own. Will he didn't quite have that level of power.  But as I said, this is a story about power and this is the time when William Randolph Hearst starts to think, okay, what power do I have? What can I get away with?  

So, for example, he's reporting on these stories in Cuba. And one of them, he reports on this outrageous story of this woman. , Angelina Ceros. She's the daughter of a rebel captain. And supposedly some Spanish officers sees her think she's pretty. And he tries to seduce her. And, um,  She rejects his advances and he tries to force himself on her and she runs away. And so, as a consequence, this officer has her arrested and thrown in jail.  And so this is a great story, right? He loved to put beautiful women in distress on the cover of his newspapers. So.  Look at this innocent woman who's in jail because she wanted to keep her virtue and resisted the advances of this despicable Spanish officer. It's a great story.  

So they make a huge deal about it.

And then he decides, remember other stock, but journal ax. So he decides he's going to act. So he sends one of his reporters to Cuba. Gives them a bunch of money and says, Hey, see what you can do. To free this woman, Angelina Saras. And so he uses the money. He bribed some officers, he bribed some guards.

And manages to smuggle her out of Cuba.

And so she comes to New York and of course, William Randolph Hearst dresses her up like a princess in this white dress and parades her around the city in a literal parade in New York. And this is a genius move. I mean,

think of the amount of self promotion. But this generates for, for Hearst and for the journal, it's just, it's unbelievable. It's a master stroke.

Now it doesn't immediately come to war.

This situation is simmering and Cuba for years. And then finally in 1898. The United States sends a battleship called the USS Maine. To Havana to the capital of Cuba. There were a lot of economic ties. That Americans had in Cuba, a lot of Americans owned businesses, owned farms, many Americans live there.

So they say, okay, we're just going to send a battleship. , to hang out in the Harbor in Havana. To, to make sure that Americans in Cuba are okay.  And then on February 15th, 1898. The USS Maine. Blows up. Completely explodes. And he kills 250 sailors on board.  It's the middle of the night. When William Randolph Hearst finds out via telephone.

He's at home. He picks it up. Obviously he knows he was getting called in the middle of the night. It's big news. So he says, okay, what's the big news. What's so important that you woke me up.  

And they say. The battleship Maine has been blown up in Havana Harbor. And he says. Good heavens. What have you done with the story?  We've put it on the front page. Of course. Have you put anything else on the front page? Only the other big news. And then William says there is no other big news. Please spread the story all over the page. This means war.  

Initially the president, president McKinley is cautious. It's unclear what caused the USS Maine to blow up. It could have been just an accidental fire that lit off some ammunition inside the ship. So it blew up. , or the other likely scenario was a Spanish mine. If it was a Spanish mine, it was probably an accident. I mean, it seems to stretch the imagination that the Spanish.

Would intentionally. Blow up the ship because you know, for the Spanish, the worst possible outcome. Is that the United States of America who gets involved? So it was probably either an accidental mine. Or an accidental explosion onboard the ship. We actually still don't know.

The president McKinley establishes a Naval commission to investigate and to find out. Uh, what happened?

And it takes them a while to investigate and every day. They're investigating. Hers is,  killing president McKinley in the newspaper saying, you know, Americans are dead and look at this coward who won't avenge them, who won't go to war with Spain.  And so there is this immense pressure. It's not just from Hearst, but Hurst is definitely the loudest voice.

And calling for war in Cuba.  

And then the Naval commission comes back and they say,  We can't know for sure. But it definitely is possible. That it could have been a mine.  And that's enough. To kind of set off alarm bells everywhere.  Even still president McKinley and some level heads are trying to see if there's a diplomatic solution with Spain. So they enter into negotiations.

But they can't come to an agreement. And so on April 21st. McKinley asks for war authorization. And Congress gives it to him.  

Interestingly, once war breaks out.  One of the most fascinating things. William Randolph Hearst. Tries to conduct his own war.

So. The Spanish have a number of colonial possessions to their biggest ones are Cuba. And the Philippines over in the Pacific.  So they've got these two different theaters of war and they're trying to move warships between the two. And,  there's the thought that some of those are going to go through the Suez canal.

The Suez canal is in Egypt. It's what gets you from the Mediterranean out towards Asia? And so Hearst has this idea. He wants to see if he can go take one of his yachts. And sync it. In the Suez canal to delay the Spanish for moving their fleet through, through the canal and being able to come and move a fleet

that was an Asia over to the Atlantic theater to fight in Cuba. But, I mean, it's just really interesting that he's even thinking like that. Like how can I personally use my resources to help wage war on Spain?

He runs a headline less than a week afterwards, declared that reads. How do you like the journals war?  So this isn't just, you know, hindsight where people are saying that William Randolph Hearst started this war. He's actively trying to encourage this idea that he's the one that started the war. He's calling it the Journal's war.  

And so obviously as a newspaper, not only are they trying to conduct the war by sinking ships in the Suez canal. But they're going to cover the war. Of course.  And I always love how to take over the world crossovers and we get one here. This is the first time that Hearst starts working with the Edison company.

To produce motion, pictures, movies. Of the war.  And so her sends a bunch of journalists, photographers and cartoonists over to Cuba, and a few guys that he contracts with from the Edison company. To document everything about this new Spanish American war.

At some point, people start teasing him, like, all right. You're so anxious for the United States to send all these boys over to go die in Cuba. You're only 35 William Randolph Hearst. You're not an old man. What are you doing? Why can't you go fight? And so he does ask president McKinley. Like, can I form my own outfit? Can I have my own little cavalry company and kind of go over there as mercenaries?

And he says, no, if you're gonna go fight, you have to do it with the us army. And rehearsed is not about to go in list. So he doesn't go over as a soldier, but he does is he gets authorization to outfit a yacht. With guns and heads over as an armed war correspondent. So that's what he does. Uh, Hurst himself goes over with a bunch of journalists to Cuba shortly after arriving. He goes towards the front lines where they're trying to report.

And they come to this area, they do not realize is a fortified Spanish position. And so the Spanish start shooting at them. And one of his journalists gets shot.  And, uh, it's not life-threatening. He gets shot in the arm or the leg, but he's bleeding. Profusely and her skills over to him.  

And he treats the wound. It's kind of heroic. Right. But listen to what he says to him. This is, this is genuine obsession. And he goes over to his friend, this journalist who's been shot. And he says, this is a quote, sorry. You're hurt. But wasn't that a splendid fight. We're going to beat every paper in the world.  

So like, even as his friend is shot and bleeding on the ground, All I can think about is man, this is going to make.  The amazing newspaper tomorrow.

. I mean hers, man. He was one of a kind. , another thing he does while he's there is he's on his battle yacht. As I like to call it. And they're kind of on the outside. Of the American Navy. Where a battle is about to take place there, sailing towards the Spanish Navy and there's can be a Naval battle.

And the Navy says to him,  Hey, can you beat it? You're not a worship about having an actual fight. Can you leave? And hers just says no. And hangs out on the outside of this battle. And so as the battle is kind of wrapping up, the Americans win a bunch of Spanish battleships have been blown up.

And some sailors from the Spanish fleet have managed to swim to shore.  

And so Hearst takes his yacht. And sales over to the sailors and takes 29 Spanish soldiers as prisoners. And they're pretty happy to be taken as prisoner. , they just, you know, want to be.  Dry and onboard and get some food.  And so he takes them prisoner and eventually delivers them to the U S Navy to hold this prisoners.  

And so again, this makes a great news. And even other newspapers have to give him credit. I'm like, man, what a story, you know, while others talk, the journal acts. I mean, that's true for sure. They're involved in the war. They're taking Spanish prisoners. I mean, can you imagine that today? Can you imagine that Fox news or MSNBC reports? Yeah, we had some reporters in Afghanistan and they actually took 29 Taliban fighters as prisoners and turned them over to the U S government.

And what kind of sensation. Would that cause, but what would you think of a journalistic organization that was capable of doing that?

And so again,  this key insight. Of William Randolph Hearst. Don't just report the news, make the news. That is when you generate the most attention.  

So, of course the United States is easily victorious in the Spanish American war. And the Hearst papers grow tremendously throughout the war. The journal has now surpassed the world and it's the biggest newspaper in New York and therefore the biggest newspaper in the world.

And Hearst not only has the confidence that he is the best newspaper man. But he's starting to think of himself as a man of destiny. Of the kind of guy who can take prisoners and free princesses in the middle of a war.  So he comes home from Cuba, ready to make an even bigger impact on the world.  So we'll talk about.

What that impact is next episode. But for now to finish out, let's talk about some lessons. I mean to me, one of the big lessons is he's 35 years old. And he's doing all this stuff, but what's interesting is he still only got two newspapers. Yes, they're very big and very influential and great newspapers.

But it's kind of remarkable for someone who, you know, ends up being known as this Titan of business, owning this huge conglomerate with all these media properties that it's been 10 years. That he's been in business and there's no conglomerate. There's just two newspapers.

And to me. There's a lesson in that. I think people, when they start to get successful immediately, Want to expand. And other products, other mediums, other channels. I think that's particularly a temptation for creators. But you can see that. No, no, no. Her doubles down on his one or two best channels until they are absolutely dominant.

And only then only once he's completely. Ahead of the field. Does he think about expanding.

And so I think there's a lesson there.  And then, you know, just to reiterate some of the other stuff I mentioned throughout. You have to be.  A sicko.  And absolute sicko. I think that's what Hearst is. His mother refers to his habit of collecting his love of art. As an affliction.  It's like a disease. That's what she compares it to.  

And that's how he feels about great writing and great newspapers. He has an affliction. He can't help himself. He loves this, right? He can't help, but collect these great writers. He can't help, but want to make the absolute best content for his new, safer, no matter the cost. He is a sicko.

For great content. And if you are not a sicko, if you're someone who is just in it for the money, you are never going to be able to compete. With the sickos for the people who are doing it for the love of the game.  That was one of my big takeaways from meeting Mr. Beast, that guy. Loves YouTube, not just because it has made him a bunch of money.

And he's done well with it. , but because he's a consumer as well, he's just a sicko like Hurst is he just loves to watch YouTube videos. So you have to have that sickness. If you want to be great.  

Other lessons when it comes to media. You have to spare no expense in making your content. The best.  In some industries. There is room for luxury products and then Cheever ones, you have Rolex, and then you have Timex,

but in media. You know, the cost of a newspaper is basically the same as any other paper. The cost of a movie ticket. Is the same, no matter what movie you're going to. And that's even more true nowadays, when most media is free. You know, my podcast costs the same as every other podcast, free 99. Uh, if you go to YouTube, basically every video costs the same as every other video on YouTube. They're all free.

So if you're content. Is even just 5% worse than the competition. Then people are going to watch something else. It doesn't get any cheaper. So why would I watch worst content? So you have to spend whatever it takes to make the best stuff. If you want to get yours, if you want to get eyeballs.  Another lesson is that it is never losing strategy to get all the best talent in industry and put them under one roof.

But just, it seems to me. Whether it's apple, whether it's Nike. Whether it's the San Francisco examiner or the New York journal, it always works. And it's a big reason why Hurst was successful. Is he created a as when a few blacks said a place full of geniuses.

And I think in order to create that kind of place. You have to create an environment where those kinds of people love to  📍 be in love to work.

Okay. Well, that is it for this week until next time. Thank you for listening to how to take over the world.

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Hello, and welcome to how to take over the world. This is Ben Wilson. This is part two on the life of William Randolph Hearst. And just to catch you up with where we were at in case you forgot. Last time we saw how William, who was the son of a wealthy California minor ends up taking over his father's failing newspaper in San Francisco.

And ends up turning it around into a very successful and the biggest newspaper in San Francisco. And then he goes out to New York. He takes over a paper called the journal and makes it the most successful newspaper in New York.

And when we had left off Hurst was just finished being a sort of armed war correspondent in Cuba during the Spanish American war. In part two, we'll examine the expansion of his media empire, dive into his politics and how he became one of the most important political figures of the 20th century.

And of course through it all. We'll talk about how he did it, how he was so successful. I think this is an amazing story of someone who took money and turned it into power and influence. So we'll get into all that. But before we do, here's a brief word from one of our sponsors.

So when William comes home from the Spanish American war home from Cuba. You might think that he would be ecstatic because it was a big success in terms of generating publicity, increasing readership of his newspapers. If you remember, he captures these Spanish prisoners and that makes him something of a hero. The reporting is first rate.

Uh, it seems on the surface, like everything is going well, but he was not ecstatic or elated. When he came home, he was actually devastated. Here's what he had to say. I'm quoting a letter that he wrote to his mom. He said, I guess I'm a failure. I made the mistake of my life in not raising the cowboy regimen I had in mind before Roosevelt raised his, I really believe I brought on the war, but I failed to score in the war.

I had my chance and failed to grab it. And I suppose I must sit on the fence now and watch the procession go by.

It's my own fault. I was 35 years of age and of sound mind, comparatively, and could do as I liked, I failed and I'm a failure and I deserve to be for being a slow and stupid as I was

outside of the grief that it would give you. It had better to be in a Santiago trench than where I am now.

Okay. So very heavy stuff from William Randolph Hearst right there. I. I was dead. Mom sounds like a, like an emo kid. And what's getting him so emotional. So down about this. Well, it's not his own performance, which is actually great. It's seeing Teddy Roosevelt. And what he did during the Spanish American war.

So Teddy Roosevelt wasn't much of anybody before this, but he had taken his rough riders regiment and made a national hero of himself by charging the Spanish on San Juan Hill

and Hearst himself had first had the idea before the war to raise a volunteer regiment. And he had asked president McKinley who said no, and he didn't push it. He just let it go. And now he sees Roosevelt who he absolutely hates and loads becoming a hero and realizes that he had the same opportunity and missed it.

And he understands that this is going to launch Roosevelt into national stardom, and he can probably already tell that he's headed for the presidency and that kills him.

Because the truth of the matter is he wasn't trying to build a media empire just in order to have a business empire. This wasn't his primary objective to make money. He was trying to have influence and power, especially through politics.

There's this line from Francis Ford Coppola. You can always understand the story of the son by the story of the father. Shout out to David Sandra who always uses that line. And sons are always trying to complete the unfinished business of their father. You see this in the life, for example, of George W. Bush, who feels that his father had unfinished business in Iraq.

So he goes and invades Iraq. I know that's an oversimplification, but it certainly seems like that was at play in his psychology. And you see this with William Randolph Hearst as well. His father had come into politics a late in life had struggled for a long time as a Democrat in California and had not had much success until finally becoming a Senator.

Right before he died prematurely, before his full political ambitions could be realized. And so Hearst kind of wants to complete those political ambitions.

He wants to finish that unfinished business. He wants to be very influential politically and really, he wants to be president of the United States.  

So as a precursor to running for president, he needs his voice heard outside of California and New York, the current place where he has newspapers. So he establishes a newspaper in Chicago, the first democratic paper in the city. He actually has to bring in some gangsters to rough up the Newsboys cause they don't want to carry his paper.

They're afraid to carry the competitor of the biggest paper in town, the Chicago Tribune, which is pressuring them to not sell. Her paper, but you know, he brings in his muscle. They rough him up a little bit. They tell him, Hey, you better carry this paper. And all right, the Newsboys start selling.

His Chicago paper as well. He implements his usual playbook in Chicago and immediately the paper starts doing really well boosted by the fact that it's the first democratic paper. People were kind of ready for it.

So he wants to enter politics. He's got these newspapers, he's got money, he's got connections and friends inside the democratic party. And so he starts trying to find somewhere where he can fit in. And they end up getting him a congressional seat. He's basically appointed. And they have this big party machine that I've talked about called Tammany hall, which is a big center of.

Politics get out the vote efforts, also corruption for Democrats in New York city. And so the Tammany bosses decide, okay, you can have the nomination for this democratic seat. And it's a very, very heavily democratic district. So whoever gets nominated, is he going to win? So. Here's the nomination.

And he's a shoe-in. He doesn't have to campaign in the general election.

He doesn't have to make a big show of it, make a big thing of it, but he does.

He has these huge campaign rallies with fireworks, huge meals, outdoor parades, bans, and everywhere. He's talking about defending unions and the working man ending the trusts, which were these corrupt public monopolies that control public utilities, like water, ice, and gas.

And in his biggest speech, he has these electric bulbs behind him. And remember, electric lighting is pretty new at this point. So he's got these electric lights that spell out. Congress must control the trust. And that was his big message and he was very on message. Very on brand control the trusts.

And this works, it gets him a national profile. And it's very smart of him to build his profile before he runs for president. It essentially allows him to get his message out on a post. He's got the microphone in this district and no one is going to debate him or contradict them. So when the election comes, he cleans up his district even more than is normal for a Democrat.

He wins in a huge, huge landslide victory. The only thing about Mars, this victory

He has a big victory party near Madison square, and he has a huge fireworks display.

And unfortunately those fireworks catch fire. They ignite all at the same time. , before they launch and they explode, which essentially creates a bomb. A dozen people are killed. And hundreds are maimed or wounded. The, you read the descriptions and it's like saving private Ryan. People are walking around bloody to maimed. People are missing arms and legs. It's awful.

And so obviously this goes against his message, which is I'm for the working people. I'm the common man. And it's like, no, you're actually so rich. And so humoristic that you killed working men with your enormous extravagant, unnecessary fireworks this way,

So that is a mark against him, but he tries to put it behind him. He goes off to Washington, DC and serves as a Congressman. Uh, he's very influential in large part because of all his money and his newspapers. And he creates a big stir around these very progressive issues of labor unions, workers rights, and busting the trust.

The only flaw in this plan is that as he's doing this, he started sticking his thumb in the eye of the very people who helped get him elected in the first place,  he's making an enemy of Tammany hall.

Because they rely on these trusts to make their money. That's how they do their corruption. That's how they launder their money. It's through these big public monopolies.

So he's, he's getting very popular in Congress, but he's also making some enemies. Well, he was never very patient and he always liked to move fast. So he decides to run for president only two years. After being elected to Congress.

And of the people planning to run for president as Democrats. He's basically the only person who represents the radical William Jennings, Bryan wing of the party. If you remember William Jennings, Bryan is a firebrand

who delivers very impassioned speeches. About working people, the forgotten man,

and this is the wing that the democratic party is a little bit embarrassed of the people that they don't want to embrace.

And so the democratic machine is not going to be very supportive of Hearst. So he starts to think, all right, well, why do I need these people? Anyway, I have my newspapers. I can go directly to the people, the voters by publishing in my newspapers. So he makes kind of a Donald Trump appeal. He says, look, listen guys, I'm a rich businessman. I have all this money.

I won't be beholden to anyone else. I won't need to do all this corruption so I can just do the right thing. I can fight for the people and not for the trust, not for big business, because I can afford to.  And so that's his popular message. He wants to get it out to even more people. So while he's campaigning for president,

he establishes newspapers in Los Angeles and Boston to help them get the message out there as well. Now has planned for the nomination is basically all right, I'm going to pick up all of William Jennings. Bryan's contingent of the party. And that's strongest in the west and in the Midwest. And then I'm from New York. So I can use the journal, my newspaper to pick up support in New York.

And that should be a winning coalition. That should be enough. And at first, this seems to work.

His message is deeply unpopular. With businesses with financial interests, with those who tend to supply the money that supports the democratic party, but it's very, very popular with the voters and he's gaining more and more support. In the last episode, I compared William Jennings, Bryan to Donald Trump.

And this is kind of toxic personality with a radical message. But in many ways, William Randolph Hearst is even more like Trump. He's an outsider businessman with questionable morals who absolutely dominates every new cycle with a radical message

that is completely. Uh, wrong anathema, inappropriate to proper society. Right? If you go do a cocktail party in New York and you say I'm a big Trump supporter. Uh, imagine the kind of reaction you're going to get. That is the kind of reacting you would've got. If you have said. I'm I'm a big Hearst supporter.

And similar to Donald Trump. He is a genius of self promotion and he's kind of creating this cult of personality. So.  There are a lot of people, especially powerful people who just hate him. I can't stand him. The rest of the media can't stand him, but he also has these really, really fanatical supporters as well, who will do anything for him?

So the comparisons are very strong between hirsutism and kind of Trumpism.

And so similar to when Trump for sort of running in 2015, people are freaking out saying, we've got to stop this guy at all costs. He's horrible. He's going to destroy America. He's going to destroy the Republic. One of the main things that they try and hit him with is his reputation as a Playboy. They're like, oh, he's going to have poker games and boxing matches in the white house.

You know, remember he lived with a waitress and San Francisco. And he actually had just married a woman. Her name was Millicent Wilson. But she was a chorus girl. Right? So, uh, not, not exactly the stuff that first ladies were usually made of.

So they're attacking his personal life. They're attacking his rabble rousing radical left wing politics.

But they can't stop them. His message is just so appealing. So in the first primary, which back then was Rhode Island. He wins six of eight delegates. So he wins the first primary. And then he starts winning more and more primaries. And he's the front runner and it looks like he's had a victory for the nomination, for the presidency in 1904.

And then they get to New York and New York is home state. You know, supposedly he should do well in New York. He's got a lot of support there. A lot of people love the journal. He's got fanatical, radical sport. The problem is New York is the center for corruption in the democratic party, right? This is where Tammany hall is located. And it's the place where they're handing out all these corrupt contracts, these trusts. And so he's really alienated these party bosses.  

They have this big, get out the vote machinery, you know? Vote early vote often.  

And so when it gets to New York, Which is by far the most populous state at this time in America. , he gets zero delegates, peace, hugely popular, and he completely loses. , he gets nothing from New York.  And it's because of Tammany hall and there she cannery. Sorry.

And so this is  a huge blow. So it's not good, but he's still got a shop.

And the key for him to pick up momentum again. Is William Jennings, Bryan.  Who he had been William Jennings. Bryan's. Means the border. The only one who really stood by him when no one else would in the last election cycle. And so William Jennings, Bryan is going to give this big speech. It's, you know, all the newspapers are going to be there. Everyone's going to cover it. And Hearst thinks that they have an agreement that he's going to endorse him.

So he sends all these supporters to go cheer for them at the speech. And he gives a speech. And it's going and it's going, and he's not mentioning Hearst and he's not mentioning Hearst. And then it ends and he never endorses William Randolph Hearst. And so what becomes clear is that he's thinking. Okay. Well, since people can't really consolidate behind Hearst, maybe there will be a deadlocked convention and I will emerge as the compromised candidate. He's still thinking he's got a chance to be president.  

And so the fact that he gives this big speech and he doesn't endorse William Randolph Hearst, it sinks his chances. It's basically over after that.

So William Jennings, Bryan. Trader. Absolute trader. And so with this Hearst has no shot. He ends up losing the nomination to an old school. Vanilla Democrat by the name of Alton judge Alton.  And so judge AlTiN faces off against Teddy Roosevelt in the general election. And it's one of the biggest blowouts in American presidential history. Teddy wins by 20 percentage points.

And everyone afterwards kind of realizes man. The democratic party is broken. It needs to be fixed. We can't keep running it this way. I think people realize that someone like Hurst with a populous message would have had a better shot against Teddy Roosevelt. Uh, then this vanilla corrupt Democrat judge Alden. So Hearst is shattered that he has failed.

In his big dream and has a little bit of a mental breakdown has to go on a month long vacation. But he hasn't still given up on it entirely. He just thinks. All right. Well, I got to regroup and the presidency is still awaiting.

When he comes back from his vacation Hurst realizes what he needs to do. The reason that he lost was the machinations. Of the corrupt democratic party center in Tammany hall. And so he decides I need to destroy Tammany hall. And so we decided the best way to do that is to run for mayor where he can cancel all their corrupt contracts.

Uh, deprive them of their money and starve them out. So he runs for mayor as a third-party candidate as neither a Republican, nor a Democrat. He creates his own party called the municipal ownership league. The idea being the city is going to own all these services. Water gas. Ice, uh, instead of these trusts.

And this is a huge long shot and a big risk. Right.

Because just like today. Uh, almost every racist, just Republicans versus Democrats. Third party candidates usually come way in last place. And if he does, it becomes way in last place. It's just going to destroy. Uh, his reputation as a viable national political figure.

You can't run for president. If you run for mayor of New York and come in a distant third. So the stakes are high. Uh, but he gets out, he uses his newspapers to get his message out. And of course he's running on his same anti-trust anti-monopoly message. And once again, it's hugely successful. People are going wild for it. He has these big rallies, big parties, thousands of people cheering wildly at the slightest excuse mega fans that are following him from rallied rally.

He goes a little lighter on the fireworks this time, as you might imagine.

There's a good quote that describes it. Uh, it says Mr. Hurst had a reception, so enthusiastic and it's cheers. So fanatical in its appearance of devotion. So vigorous in its declaration of voting for him. The all the calculations of politicians about New York were upset.  In other words.

Uh, people figure it. Okay. Hearst. He's not running as a major party candidate. He's going to come in a distant third, but all of a sudden they're seeing the level of support he has and they think. All right. Well, actually, I don't know what's going to happen this election.  

And in fact he's doing so well that his opponents. Start kind of conspiring together to stop him. So the Republicans basically drop out. They say.  it's looking like hers might win. So, , don't vote for the Republican candidate. Republicans vote for the Democrat, better him than Hurst. Hurst is the worst guy in the world.

Uh, he's the socialist and even the socialists disavow him. They're like, no, no, no, this guy's not a socialist. Look at him. He's a business guy. He owns all these huge businesses. And he's not advocating for true socialism. He's not one of ours. And so it's really Hurst against the world. All the powers that be are trying to stop him.  

And listen to how vitriolic and extremely are about it. Uh, one of the main democratic speakers, this Tammany hall politician, uh, gets out and gives a speech and he says, Hearst represents every appeal to passion that we have observed during the last nine years. Every incitement to murder every encouragement to riot.

Every disposition to a re class against class, every assault upon property and every insinuation against the virtue. He's an apostle of a riot, an advocate of disorder, a promoter of socialism.

His election would be such a pronouncement of anarchy and riot that the very foundations of society would be shattered. And the whole fabric of social order reduced to ruin.  So. Again, I, this is like apocalyptic language. The world is going to end. If you elect William Randolph Hearst as mayor.

In, despite all these histrionics, it becomes clear. He's going to win. He's in the lead. People love him. They love this message and they're tired of the Republicans and the Democrats. So the day comes election day. He's going to win.

And he sends out his election officials. To go monitor the election. That's what campaigns do.

So you have your poll workers and they go to the polls where people vote and they monitor it to make sure that, , nothing fishy is going on. And it's not long before these poll workers start coming back, the campaign headquarters, and they've got  bruised and bloody faces and bodies. They've got broken arms and legs and fingers. One person comes in with his finger chewed off, uh, and this is Tammany Hall's.

Magnum Opus. This is their PAs that Lost their peak achievement. They steal this election. So shamelessly that even their supporters are a little bit embarrassed. , They're bringing people and they're just not even hiding the fact that they're just having people cycle through and vote time and time again. And they just.

Uh, manufacturer ballots, they turn away Hurst voters. They do everything they can. And yes. Uh, at the end of the day. They steal the election and

even newspapers, who days before we're saying the election of Hertz would lead to absolute anarchy or saying, all right, this is, this is kind of embarrassing. The selection was obviously stolen. But, Hurst is such a toxic figure that no one's willing to do anything about it. So. He loses.  

Uh, but some good does come of it. Uh, what it does is it essentially forced Democrats to moderate their corruption. They realized, okay. If someone like Hearst can run on an anti-corruption message. And gained so much popular support. And we can't just keep doing this. We have to limit the amount of corruption in our city, government.  

So this spells kind of the beginning of the end for Tammany hall.  Definitely not the end, the end, but things start to unwind from there. And it kind of leads to the rise of the modern New York city. Which is, let's be honest, not completely free from corruption, but it's certainly miles ahead from where it was 110 years ago.  

So having lost, but having sort of been legitimized in his loss. Hertz decides. Okay, I'm going to take one more run at this.  And he runs for governor of the state of New York next.  

And this time he doesn't run on an independent ticket. He runs as a Democrat and basically gets the Democrats to endorse him. Let him run as a Democrat. By saying, look. If you don't make me your nominee. I'm going to run third party again and spoil your chances. And so say, okay. And a Hearst is the democratic candidate for the governor of New York.  

And basically the same thing. Replays again, Republicans hate him. Democrats hate him, pretend to kind of not hate him, but, but really the despise him. And, uh,, again, same thing he's doing really well. He's coming out ahead. And at the last minute the Republicans go Thermo nuclear. It was an unwritten rule back then.

That presidents of the United States did not intervene in state elections. They were supposed to be above it all. They're supposed to be a unifying force.

Well, Teddy Roosevelt. Who's the president. Lowe's and hates Hurst so much that he decides to break this rule. It's too important to pass up this election. So he has a representative go out and give a speech for him. He still maintains the fig leaf of not showing up himself, but his representative gives a speech and says, I am speaking on behalf of the president.

And he says about Hearst.

Quote, he is the most potent single influence for evil that we have in our day.  He also says that he considers her. Quote complicit in the assassination of president William McKinley. So, let me explain that a little bit. Hers had been opposed to McKinley who was president of United States and a Republican and his papers had written a lot of articles opposing him, but crucially, while he was president.

Uh, governor, uh, governor elect actually in Kentucky was assassinated. And when he was killed. One of her subscribers basically says that bullet should have been for president McKinley. And he says it's too bad. But if assassination is the only way to remove bad politicians, then assassinations, they will be.

So, you know, at the very least he's being kind of flippant about this assassination and at the most. Uh, he's kind of encouraging these fascination president McKinley.  

So later when president McKinley is indeed assassinated by an anarchist. Republicans. I try to blame it on Hurst and his writers and his papers, but especially on William Randolph, Hearst himself.  Now. This anarchist who shot McKinley. He barely spoke English. He couldn't have read any hearse newspapers if he wanted to. So the idea that Hurst or his writers inspired him to kill McKinley.

Is kind of ridiculous, but still the stink of this assassination kind of sticks to them and Republicans really try and make it stick.

Even still, uh, with Teddy Roosevelt coming in off the top rope at the very last second. The race is really tight and Hurst might have one, but once again, Tammany hall, forts him. They refuse to use their party machinery to turn out the vote in New York city. They kind of sit out the election. And so he narrowly loses to his Republican adversary in the race for governor.

And with that Hearst decided that he was basically snake bit. And his ambitions as a politician we're basically over after that.  

And these three races taken together has run for president mayor and governor. Reveal his fatal flaw as a politician. He was amazing self promotion. Uh, using his newspapers, his magazines and his movies. To create a movement. That people really believed in and could get behind. and he was great at getting his message across and making sure that you couldn't avoid it.

You had to know what her stood for because his message was. Present everywhere. But what he was not good at was playing nice with others and this refusal to play party politics, to include others and to defer to the democratic party machine. , that's what made him lose? All these different races. And so, uh, there's lessons to be learned there that, you know, using the tools, the media tools that Hurst used.

You can create a political movement. But you have to be willing on a certain level to play with the powers that be. And at least pretend to get along with them.

So that's something Hearst was not good at. You know, he probably could have won some of these races if he had been willing to go to the party bosses at Tammany hall. And either compromise a little bit or do FDR did, which was just lie and say that he would cut them in and then cut them out. Once he held power.

So his strategy could have been a little bit better around that. And, uh, and he loses those races.

So in the 19 teens. He goes back to focusing on building his media empire. And still having influence on politics and policy, but doing it behind the scenes. As a funder and as a media guy who gets his message out through his newspapers and other media entities.

So speaking of his media empire, he's been losing money basically this entire time after his last run for governor, he decides, okay.  I'm going to focus on this. He turns his papers around a little bit. And they start making him some money they're doing really well. He also expands into film with newsreels that run before feature films.

He starts a publishing company that published full length books. And through all of this, he's utilizing what we'd call today. Synergy.

So his weekday papers would carry a story and then the newsreel would come out the next day and it would be playing in movie theaters before a feature film. And then his Sunday papers would carry an extended illustrated version. A more in-depth version of the story that had been the weekday papers.

And then if that did well, uh, he had Hurst international publishers. That might take the story and make it into a complete narrative as a hard cover book. So you got one story and he makes money on it as a weekday newspaper, a weekend newspaper. As a filmmaker with newsreels and eventually when he gets into radio.

Uh, he does it with radio as well. And then as a book, so you get this really smart idea of, instead of trying to venture out into other random businesses.  He staying in the same core business, taking the thing he's really good at, which is writing and storytelling and saying, okay, how many ways can we capitalize on this core strength?

Now having said all that the business empire is doing well, but it's still not the thing he cares about the most. So if there's something that he believes in. That would be bad for business. He'll say you're do it anyway. And you see this with world war one. Hearse was basically an isolationist, especially when it comes to Europe.

And he was very opposed to the U S getting involved in world war one. And at first, this is fine, but as the war drums get louder and louder, people are enthusiastically getting behind the war and they're really bothered by his continued support for non-involvement. And so there are boycotts circulation drops a little, and where he really loses out is with advertisers

Who don't want to be associated with what is coming to be considered an anti patriotic and newspaper. The federal government even sends secret agents to investigate if he was a German spy, which he was not, but it tells you something that they're, they're looking into this.

So he's losing money while this is happening, but he continues to oppose roll one. And the thing that really saves him is the U S actually getting into the war because once the USA was fully committed, he basically has to throw up his hands and say,  okay. I opposed it, but we're in the war now. And I support us winning, which relieves a lot of pressure people say, okay. And so people start coming around. Circulation improves revenue returns.

And the 1920s are really prosperous for Hearst. The American economy is booming and this would be the first time in his life where he's really earning. Lots of money and I mean, lots of money.

You know, previously he had just been taking from the family fund or borrowing, but now he's actually generating a lot of revenue. You also expands into film production starts a studio called cosmopolitan studios. And he partners with MGM and ends up becoming one of the great Hollywood film producers.

So, as I said, he's making money, but he's also, you know, all this stuff costs money. You don't just start up a film production company with no costs. And so in the past he had been asking his parents to fund his endeavors. And he'd been borrowing copiously from banks in order to fund this expansion of his empire.

. And he can afford to do that because people will give him money. As long as the business empire seems like it's doing well. So this goes all the way until the great depression.  

And when it first hits in 1929. Hurst actually does. All right. The stock market is tanking, but he doesn't hold a lot of stocks. He's mostly invested in real estate. And in his media businesses. And so for the first few years of the great depression he's doing okay. But as time goes on, as the years pass.

It starts trickling down because businesses don't have the money to advertise in newspapers anymore. And so by the mid 1930s, the revenue of his newspapers is down by more than 40%. And that creates a problem. Because Hearst was up to his eyeballs in debt. He's one of the most prolific borrowers of all time.

Part of that, as I said, Was expanding into new businesses, starting film studios, starting new newspapers and magazines. But part of it also comes from his personal addiction to collecting art. And building magnificent buildings.

So let's dive into that a little bit. Let's, let's talk about it. Cause I actually think this is a big part of his legacy. So the Hearst estates, he had a castle in Bavaria. A castle in Wales. A huge estate in the mountains in Northern California. Uh, 90 bedroom house in Santa Monica, a huge home in Beverly Hills, a big ranch in Mexico, numerous apartments, houses and properties in New York city.

And his Magnum Opus his estate on the central California coast. Now known as Hearst castle.  So his family had this ranch land in central California, and it's in the middle of nowhere. It's next to a little town called San Simeon. It's basically exactly halfway between San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Today, it's still kind of in the middle of nowhere. Uh, it takes you today a four hour drive from either LA or from San Francisco. And back then you can imagine they didn't have great highways and cars that went 65 miles an hour. So it took even more than four hours to get from one of the major California cities to his estate.

And at first it's just ranch land and he loves going there to camp because it's really beautiful. It's got these Hills that are almost mountains. It's got the beach, it's got sand dunes. It's got grasslands. It's kind of got everything in one.  

So there's this part of the property that's perched up on a hill. It's really beautiful. You can look down and see the coast from there and he loves to go camping there and decides I'm going to build my dream house in this exact spot.

And so he builds this castle. It's called Hearst castle. Although if you look at it, it doesn't really look like a castle. It looks more like a cathedral. And if you go to California, you have to go. I know, I said it's in the middle of nowhere and it is kind of a drive from either LA or San Francisco.

But it's worth going to, I mean, he builds one of the most beautiful estates in the world. I think it's breathtaking. I've been, I love it.

As I said, the central building looks like a giant cathedral. It's kind of in a Spanish Mediterranean style. And it's surrounded by these beautiful guest lodgings. That would be amazing mansions in their own. Right. And there's three of them sitting around it. And so it's beautiful. It has dozens and dozens of bedrooms.  But as I said, it's in the middle of nowhere, so he needs to make it an attractive place for others to come visit him. So he builds. All these attractions, he builds. What I think is the most beautiful outdoor swimming pool in the world.

And then he also builds what I think is the most beautiful indoor swimming pool in the world. He has the world's largest private zoo complete with bears lions, giraffes monkeys, a cheetah, a leopard Bobcat's cougars, bison, antelope, reindeer, llamas, kangaroos, a Wallaby, a tape here, sheep goats, and.

An elephant.

He's got a 50 person, movie theater loaded with the latest movies. He's got tennis courts. He's got croquet, he's got it all. And one of my favorite stories is that he would have tennis tournaments and at the end. Uh, Butler would bring down a silver platter full of expensive jewelry. And watches and nice things for everyone to have as a party favor.

And the winner of the tennis tournament got first pick of all this jewelry.  And so this cool environment where, you know, you can go horseback riding, you can go to the zoo, you can play tennis, you can go swimming. This works. And throughout the twenties and thirties, He's getting a bunch of people to come visit him.

In the kind of early to mid twenties, it's more of a newspaper guy hangout, right? His business associates will come up. 10 or 20 at a time on the weekend and visit him. And then, uh, starting in the late twenties and through the thirties, it becomes more of a Hollywood hangout. And that's because, you know, a he's becoming a Hollywood executive, he started his studio.

Um, but it's more than that. So, He was married to Millicent Wilson, but he starts an affair with this woman named Marion Davies. And she was another chorus girl, an 18 year old chorus girl that he had a type. You have to give him that.

And over time and he's basically unwilling to leave his family. So he never divorces Millicent, but Marian becomes his defacto wife. She's the one that he spends all of his time with. And he makes her into a movie star. He, uh, he turns her into a big Hollywood actress and has her star in all of the movies that he produces.

And, you know, he, he does, as this happens, this transition to Marion Davies, essentially becoming his wife happens. He does maintain a relationship with Millicent, their friends. It's not that she was unhurt. She talks about the loneliness, the hurt, the embarrassment.

I mean. You know, She doesn't like him having this very public affair with this other woman. But they come to an understanding. Uh, they raised their kids together. They will see each other over Christmas and official functions and things like that. And so they, they eventually kind of come out into being friends, but because he is spending all this time with Marion Davies, this actress.

Uh, in the late twenties and thirties. Hearst castle is the place to go for the who's. Who? Of Hollywood. So Charlie Chaplin, Clark Gable, Cary grant, all the big actors, actresses and directors are coming up on the weekends to go to her castle. Castle. And it's not just Hollywood. He was also visited there by Winston Churchill, Calvin Coolidge,

charles Lindbergh and other public,  famous dignitaries and politicians.

So it was a truly amazing, amazing place, but as you might imagine, it costs a fortune to build and maintain, and he's constantly building, you know, heal. Have a fireplace built and say, actually I think it should be on the other wall. So they. Completely demolished the fireplace, put in a new fireplace on the other wall, move the chimney.

He comes in a month later and says, I think I was wrong. Can you move the fireplace back to the original wall? And he just loved to always be working on always improving and, and, uh, and working on these estates. And in addition to all this building, he's gotten an addiction for collecting. He would look through catalogs and buy European art every single day.

Every day, he set aside time to look through these catalogs. And it's not so much paintings, although he did have some very famous paintings. Mostly, honestly, he has Napoleon looking at the Sphinx. . Which is one of my favorite paintings ever. But he's not big into collecting paintings. He's mostly into decorative art and antiquities.

So think candlesticks tables, chairs, window frames, moldings wood paneling, statues, vases tiles. Uh, sometimes he would even be touring Europe.

And he'd be in a cathedral or a monastery or a castle, and he'd look at a room and go, I love this room. I want the entire room. And so they would take down the entire thing. Strip out all the window frames, all the furniture, all the art. And, uh, and he would buy all of it and they would ship it over and he would basically reassemble it as a new room on one of his estates.

So this is a complete addiction. There's some stuff that he would buy. That would be shipped to him and he'd just sit in a warehouse and he would never even see it. And by the end, his collection was worth millions of dollars. In 1920s dollars today, it would have been worth hundreds of millions of dollars.  

Even approaching probably a billion dollar collection. Of art and antiquities.  

It was by far. the greatest art collection of the time. You know, there were others who were, close-ish like Rockefeller, but, um, Hurst certainly had the most extensive art collection at the time,  his closest competitors would have been places like the lube or the Smithsonian.

So, okay. As you can imagine. Assembling a billion dollar art collection, building all these estates as well as buying more newspapers, starting a movie studio, all this. He's just borrowing a ton of money to finance all this. And so in 1937, it's the middle of the great depression. His business incomes are way down.

And, uh, he just can't borrow anymore.  I mentioned.  Revenues are down because of the depression. There's also another reason that he is losing money and that's because he had launched another one of his unprofitable political crusades.

And this time it was anti-communism. He had launched the first red scare. In the, in the 1930s. So he sending journalists undercover to catch and publicly out communist. Academics and government officials.

And this makes for good headlines. It creates a lot of stir. It does get some readership, but it also alienates a lot of his traditional base. Which was working class pro union pro-labor Democrats. And it especially alienates his considerable Jewish readership. Because those communists in academia and government.

We're disproportionately Jewish. And add to that, the fact that he had his columnists, Benito, Mussolini, and Adolf Hitler.

And you can see why. You know, the guy who was outing. Communists who has Adolf Hitler as a writer. Uh, might not be popular with the Jewish community. And Hurst was not himself, a Nazi or a fascist. But he liked to have notable people in his columns.  And Hiller was the most notable man. Of his age. He was the biggest celebrity. So the fact that he was writing for Hearst newspapers,

Was kind of a big deal also. Uh, you know, I don't want to give her totally pass. He thought that. Fascism had done some good things in Italy and Germany, not appropriate for America, but look, it turned around those countries a little bit. Right. And he also, you know, he met with Hitler. And he thought that he could have an impact on him. He thought that the anti-Semitic stuff that he had said when he was first coming up.

You know, you said that was just to get some attention. I would know all about that. I'm sure that's behind him. .  And he worked in Hollywood and newspapers. So he was friendly with. A number of Jewish people. And they kind of asked him to liaison for them. They said, could you talk to Hitler when you talk to him?

Uh, about,  this whole antisemitic main, could you get him to calm down a little bit?  And so he does, he brings it up. And Hitler doesn't give a very  impressive response. But still Hearst thinks that it's not that big of a deal. He really doesn't think he's going to do anything too aggressive against the Jews. Um, and that goes all the way up until Kristallnacht.

Uh, crystal knocked is when he finally drops Hitler as a columnist, ,

But yeah, he, you know, He stuck with him as, as a columnist for quite a long time. And he also, you know, he would have the other side on as well. Leon Trotsky was someone who wrote regularly for his newspapers, uh, Eleanor Roosevelt also. So.  He just liked big notable people. But anyways, his flirtation, I guess you could say with fascism combined with his red scare anti-communism, , alienates, a lot of Jewish readers and not just Jewish readers.

A lot of his working class, Italian, Irish, and German and Slavic, uh, base. Was very pro-labor and pro union. And, you know,  Labor unions was where a lot of communist foment was coming from. So this is creating a lot of conflict with his traditional base, his traditional readership. And so. His circulation is dropping and he doesn't care. He really believes in this anti-communism he resents the fact that communists are trying to infiltrate and subvert American institutions. So he goes ahead.

But, you know, it's driving him bankrupt, he's losing lots of money. And so in 1937, he just, he can't borrow anymore. Uh, he has borrowed so much, so his company goes into receivership. And the banks take it over. And they demote him from being CEO. They take half of his art collection and sell it off to pay off his debts. They start selling some of his less successful newspapers. They cut salaries and they put the company through this really severe austerity.

And this works in a way. Uh, in the coming six years, they do eventually manage to make her corporation profitable, but they also greatly reduce the size of his business empire. ,  . So after six years, he takes it over again in 1943 or 44. ,

And at that point, world war II. Is happening, which kind of. Papers over the whole red scare anti-communist thing. , a lot of his readers return.

And, uh, his business empire He's more successful from that time until the end of his life, he still would maintain day-to-day control.  Basically up until the very end. And he slows down a little bit in the last couple months of his life. Um, But up until then he himself would go offer very detailed feedback on articles, headlines, and layout.

, but he has heart disease. And, uh, in 1951 at the age of 88, he passes away.  After his death, the business actually does considerably better. It was no longer a vehicle for his personal ambitions and opinions to influence American society and policy. But now, you know, within, out of the way, It's just a money-making venture and they have great assets. They got great newspapers, great magazines. And so it grows and grows. And today it's one of the largest private corporations in the world with annual revenues of more than $10 billion.

And it owns a lot of things that you've probably heard of cosmopolitan magazine owns 50% of AMD network, 25% of ESPN.

And it's a big part of his legacy that still stands.

So what can we learn from the life of William Randolph Hearst? I shared a few lessons last time, but let me add a few things here. The first is you've got to really champion a cause if you want to be involved politically.

I've seen a number of people. Float. Uh, different celebrities. And say that they should become politicians like the rock and Oprah. And on a couple occasions, at least with the rock, it seems like he maybe considered it.

Like, Hey, you know, Donald Trump was a celebrity, it worked for him. Everyone loves me the rock. Uh, everyone loves Oprah, like for sure they would succeed as politicians. If Donald Trump can succeed and he's very divisive  and very controversial. Why not? A less controversial figure that everyone loves, like the rock.

But the thing that you learned from Hurst is that in order to succeed in that world, You really have to champion a cause you have to be willing to be controversial and not just willing to be controversial, but you got to lean into the controversy. Right? You have to really take over and own one of these big causes when these big movements.

It doesn't work to be harmless to be sanitized, to be safe.  

And so if you're someone who has been successful in media and you're interested in turning that into influence. Politically. Then just know that they're going to have to be willing to be controversial and champion a cause you can't just rise above it all. That's just not how it works.

The other lesson is if you're going to do that, it doesn't matter how wealthy you are, how big your platform is,  how many people you have access to, you have to be willing to ally yourself with entrenched powers and not try and do it all on yourself. At least on a certain level.

So her's tried to avoid and distance himself from the democratic party. And that's what the feeded him every single time.

So you'd be willing to make a deal with the devil a little bit. If you're going to go that route. And just be ready that if you're going to go into politics, yes, you can use your platform to be independent and speak directly to people, but if you try to completely avoid political parties and entrenched powers,

It's probably gonna end up for you the same way. Ended up for Hearst.

On the business side.  

Hers was a micromanager when it came to his newspapers and his content, like he really cared about making excellent newspapers, magazines, and movies. He would get his hands dirty with red ink.

And if you don't. Love to get into the minutia. If you don't love to micromanage your business, then that might mean that you don't love the business. And you're probably not going to be as successful as someone who does.  And then the last thing, my last takeaway that'll point out from the wife of William Randolph Hearst.

Is, this is someone who knew how to spend his money. Like he was a great spender.

Yes. He spent too much. And that did lead to kind of his, his downfall at the end, at least for a time, but at least he did it well. Like what can you tell me about the house of Jeff Bezos or bill gates? Is anyone going to take their house? And turn it into one of the most visited state parks in the U S once they die.  

Do they have the largest private zoo in the world at their estates? Can their private collection. You know, stand toe to toe. Would that have the loop? Does all Hollywood. Come up to the house of Jeff Bezos on the weekends to party. Um, like, no,  I think so many people have lost the ability to spend well to build things that are beautiful and stand the test of time.

So if you're listening to this and you're someone with money, I hope it inspires you to live a.  More creatively. Interesting. Uh, life. Build something that Lascaux go visit Hearst castle, and then start thinking about your own legacy and what am I going to leave behind? That is going to be,  As, as beautiful and long lasting and desirable is this.  

One last little takeaway. This is the most random one, but it was interesting to me. , there's this quote, let me see if I can find the quote.

Uh, here's what it says. This is, this is the chief by David Nassau. And it says often the tallest man in the room with vivid blue eyes and a lifelong habit of staring unblinkingly at his interlocutor. He struck many visitors to San Simeon as cold and distant.  Now, um,  Take out the cold and distant part. I think it's so interesting.

That he did the Steve jobs thing. He stared at people. And you hear this about a lot of successful people. Uh, people sometimes refer to it as the tractor beam with bill Clinton. Uh, so he did the same thing. He would just stare at you. And people said, it felt like he didn't know anything else in the world. He shut out the entire world around and focused all of his attention on you.

And Steve jobs did that. And apparently William Randolph Hearst did it as well. And so, you know, this is one of those things you have to be careful because it says that people found it, uh, cold and distant and like a little bit weird. But also has this intensifying effect that, okay. I feel like this conversation is really important.

So if you really need to get through to someone. That's very effective. So there you go. If you're looking for a little hack, You can do the Steve jobs or the Hearst stare just stare directly into their eyes. And again, caution. It can be weird. It can be off-putting. But it can also get through to people and it leaves an impact on them.  

So there you go. Those are my takeaways.  📍 I hope you enjoyed this thought. William Randolph Hearst is a really interesting guy. So until next time, thanks for listening to how to take over the world.

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