The Uncrowned King: The Sensational Rise of William Randolph Hearst Read Free

Charles Palmer to scout for newspaper properties in New York. Palmer was spoiled for choice. According to Printer’s Ink, a trade journal for newspaper advertisers, there were then forty-eight daily newspapers in New York, a city of 1.5 million with a total circulation area almost double that size. Ten morning and seven afternoon English-language newspapers claimed circulations of at least 12,500. 6 Thanks to the depression of 1893, at least a half dozen of these larger papers appear to have been available. The hot gossip in town was that the young Californian was trying to buy Pulitzer’s World, a rumor Hearst went out of his way to deny. Palmer turned up four interesting possibilities, one of which was the Recorder, founded as a morning paper by tobacco tycoon James Duke in 1891 and “a great favorite with the women.” Selling in excess of 75,000 copies a day, its asking price was reportedly $4 00,000. 7 The Times, not as virile as it had been under founder Henry J. Raymond but still a respectable conservative paper, was selling roughly 50,000 a day. It was priced at $300,000. The same amount would buy the Advertiser, a penny sheet for “busy men” that sold just 20,000 copies a day. Hearst asked Palmer to look into both the Recorder and McLean’s Morning Journal, but the latter was his clear favorite.
     
    Palmer met McLean at his residence, the August Belmont house on Fifth Avenue. McLean’s opening gambit was to offer Hearst a partnership, asking $300,000 for a half-share in his paper. Palmer took that back to Hearst, who considered it a good start. He was not keen on a partnership, however, even with “as good a man as McLean.” 8 Will and Palmer kept up the negotiation and undertook a thorough investigation of the Morning Journal ’s plant and books. They called in Sam Chamberlain from San Francisco for his opinion on the proposed purchase. By the end of September, McLean had been beaten down to about $200,000 and Will was visiting Stump almost daily for updates on the Anaconda deal. Will and Palmer estimated that it would cost an additional $25,000 a month for twelve to eighteen months to bring the Journal up to their standards.
     
    McLean folded rather quickly. The prospect of selling his paper at a six-figure loss only months after taking its helm hit him hard, but he was in no position to bargain. Readers and advertisers were continuing to bolt and he was writing weekly checks to cover his operating losses. He had as yet paid Albert Pulitzer only an eighth of the purchase price. On top of everything else, he was suffering from gout, his swollen foot wrapped in flannel compresses. On the morning of October 3, 1895, Will and Palmer strolled into Stump’s offices to report that McLean had accepted their final offer of $150,000 for full ownership of the Morning Journal. Hearst had also taken as part of the bargain the Morning Journal ’s German-language sister, the New York Morgen Journal, which enjoyed one of the larger circulations among the many foreign-language dailies then publishing in New York. 9
     
    The question of whether or not Hearst struck a good deal with McLean has never much troubled his chroniclers. Hearst is typically cast as a reckless young playboy determined to satisfy his rampaging impulses without regard to cost or consequence. The stereotype is not entirely baseless. Hearst dressed the part, dropped out of school, and lived openly with his mistress. Most people would say he spent extravagantly, including his mother, whose complaints about his bills and irresponsible behavior have greatly influenced his biographers. All that, combined with the pervasive assumption that inherited wealth corrodes character, has tended to preempt discussion of Hearst’s care and good sense in his business dealings.
     
    Hearst’s deal with McLean is also difficult to rate for the lack of a good yardstick. Reliable data on the assets, profitability, and market value of long-dead dailies is hard to come