The American newspaper tycoon and former leading newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst I (April 29, 1863 – August 14, 1951) was the son of a wealthy American businessman and United States Senator George Hearst. The junior Hearst was born and brought up in San Francisco, California to the family of George Hearst & Phoebe Apperson. Starting at St. Paul's School in Concord, NH, Hearst attended the Harvard College in 1885, where Howard was active in a number of societies including undergraduate humor publication, social organization Harvard Lampoon, Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity; the A.D. Club and the Harvard Final club before he got expelled from the esteemed Institution.

Hearst as a student at Harvard owned several influential newspapers, starting in 1887 with the newspaper San Francisco Examiner, which his father received in a gambling debt. Hearst intelligently raised its circulation by focusing stories related to the then social issues like civic system’s inadequacy & municipal corruption, the approach paid of resulting in manifold increase in circulation.

In 1895,with the financial help of his mother, Hearst acquired the drowning The New York Morning Journal which later got popularity due to its sensationalist writing & support to agitation favoring the Spanish-American War. The paper successfully competed with Joseph Pulitzer's New York World which led the market through "yellow journalism”, a disapproving reference to scandal-mongering, jingoism, sensationalism & similar practices. Hiring American comic strip scriptwriter, sketcher & painter Richard F. Outcault along with writers like Julian Hawthorne & Stephen Crane, Hearst attracted the renamed New York Journal American’s readers by reducing its price to 1 cent and by publishing sensational reports on sports, sex, crime , scandal & human-interest stories. Acquiring more & more newspapers by the mid-1920s, Hearst created a chain of nearly 30 newspapers in major American cities , William Randolph Hearst later forayed into books and magazines too creating world’s largest magazine and newspaper business of that time.

Though William Randolph Hearst won two elections for the U.S. Congress in 1902 & 1904, his political career was ruined when he failed two times to become the Mayor the years were 1905 & 1909, Williams aspirations to become governor of New York’s was ruined in 1906. Hearst led the Democratic Party between 1896 and 1935; however he later inclined towards conservatives. In 1932, Hearst became a great supporter of Roosevelt which reflected in his newspapers that openly supported the New Deal policy of Roosevelt throughout 1933 & 1934.

The Great Depression of 1929 devastated William Randolph Hearst financially, a financial turmoil from which he could never recover. The Hearst media empire reached to its zenith both in circulation & revenues in 1928 before the Wall Street Crash of 1929. All his businesses were badly affected by this economic crisis but the adverse effect was more prominent in newspaper segment due to the decline in revenues on advertisements.

Hearst was one of the sponsors of the 1st round-the-world tour in an airship, the LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin. One among the winners, Grace Marguerite Hay Drummond-Hay became the first woman to travel around the world by air through this flight.

Hearst had massive & distinguished collection of arts that was mostly sold during the 1930 crisis. His collections included arms & armor, silver, and Renaissance tapestries. Hearst had legendary treasuries of Limoges enamels and goldsmiths’ work of medieval and Renaissance period. He also possessed paintings and sculptures of different artists.

In 1903, William married to 21-year-old vaudeville performer Millicent Veronica Willson (July 16, 1882 – December 5, 1974) in New York City. They had five sons: George Randolph Hearst (1904–1972), William Randolph Hearst Jr. (1908–1993), John Randolph Hearst (1910–1958), and twins Randolph Apperson Hearst (1915–2000) and David Whitmicre Hearst (1915–1986). The couple began drifting apart in 1920, when Millicent discovaered her husband’s affair with the American film actress Marion Davies (1897–1961). Though they remained married till 1951when Hearst died of heart-attack, Millicent led an independent life as a philanthropist and prominent socialite in New York and founded the Free Milk Fund for the deprived in 1921and Millicent rarely met her husband William at his estate located in California, which was often referred as "Hearst Castle".

The Hearst Corporation today also continues to be a large, privately held media conglomerate in New York City. His life story was a source of inspiration for the lead character in Orson Welles' classic film, Citizen Kane.