THE Hearst Corporation is one of America’s oldest and most renowned media companies. It was founded by William Randolph Hearst, reputed for being hard-nosed, on March 4, 1887.

That year, at the age of 24, he launched the San Francisco Examiner, inscribing his name on the masthead as proprietor. He used his father’s fortune, built over decades in mining, to lure the best journalists in America, equipping them with the latest technology to produce newspapers with production qualities surpassing all others.

The articles, however, drew criticism as they were mainly lurid accounts of crime and sex scandals, some of which were fabricated. There are critics who believe Hearst was an early pioneer of the supermarket tabloid journalism that draws wide criticism today.

In 1941, when Hearst was prospering, Orson Welles released Citizen Kane, the story of a single-minded media baron who would stop at nothing in his quest for power.

Welles was just 24 when he produced the masterpiece, the same age as Hearst when he launched the Examiner.

Later Hearst tried to buy the film so as to burn the celluloid as the tale was obviously his life story thinly disguised. Only after a quarter of a century of dirty tricks did he give up trying to destroy Welles and the film.

Today the Hearst Corporation is a huge media conglomerate worth $30 billion with sizeable interests in TV, radio, magazines, the internet and books. It is also closely linked to Disney and ABC, the television network.

If Disney goes ahead with a sale of a stake to Hearst, Comcast might want to remember the words of Hearst when asked by Douglas Fairbanks, the Hollywood mogul, why he stuck to news and did not branch out into films. “Because you can crush a man with journalism,” he declared.

Times Recommends

• Lies and cover-up at MG Rover exposed by report
• High oil prices push manufacturing costs up
• Primark founder steps down as chief executive