One of the movies which come under critics top 5 movie list is called Citizen King and the story of Charles Foster Kane is based on a real person. In real life, Citizen Kane is based on the life of William Randolph Hearst. There are many books about him and one of them is titled The Uncrowned King – the Sensational Rise of William Randolph Hearst by Kenneth Whyte published by Random House, NY, 2008. In the late 1890’s in the US was the era what we call ‘Robber Barrons” for the top 400 were wealthy as Barrons and most people earn their keep. Mr. Hearst’s father help find and owned shares in the big mineral finds in the west and was happy living in San Francisco. He bought the Examiner and decided to become a Senator and although said very little in the Senate worked the backrooms to help his state and state universities.

Will after dropping out of Harvard, worked on the Examiner and learned the craft of publishing. He would study other papers column sizes, which stories made the front page and why. What influences the paper could have and more importantly what caused more readership in an effort to make a profit. Similar to many people in the media world, the main action of being a newspaper person was the New York market. New York had over 50 newspaper publishing two and three times a day, 7 days a week. The center of the action was called Park Row. This small street in lower Manhattan reaching northeast from Broadway and Ann to Nassau Street and Printing House Square with its statue of Ben Franklin. City Hall was on the other side of the street. This street was convenient to City Hall, the Courts and the Post Office and all the amenities of publishing.

Hearst bought a second tier newspaper the Journal, in New York and was going to try to make it the biggest in terms of sales  and profitablility in New York. At the time, the leading publishers were Charles Dana of the Sun; Joseph Pulitzer of the World, the Times and everyone else. In 1889, The World’s was published in the Pulitzer Building which was at 16 stories and included a Dome was the tallest building in the US.  To move the Journal up to the top tier, money was invested in the content (better writing, more stories), price decrease for more pages, improvements in printing and use of color; pictures, cartoons, and many detail stories. In New York at the time, the newspapers did more detective work than the police.

Although money was very useful to buy the newspaper, to invest in capital improvement, and to cover his losses until circulation rose and advertising rates rose, It was the personal qualifications of living and breathing newspapers which made him a success. There were many examples of wealthy men buying newspapers and losing money. However all the large newspapers in New York were owned by men who were multimillionaires – Charles Dana of the Sun, Joseph Pulitzer of the World, Whitelaw Reid of the Tribune, James Bennett Jr. of the Herald. Bennett and Pulitzer both derived incomes approaching $1 million a year from their newspapers. Bennett’s income was next to Commodore Vanderbilt and William B Astor. Pulitzer netted approximately $20 million from his first 20 years at the World and his outside investments exceed the publishing revenues. This was the time when $15,000 was a princely income and most people lived off of hundreds of dollars a year.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, in the era of the robber barrons when there was not much of a middle income, it seemed easier to be wealthier because if your income reached into the thousands you were much better off than the average person. Now days it takes more than that, you need tens of thousands to feel better off than the average person. As you examining the options for the investments, the choice off comes to a few companies and sometimes buying a second tier company whose management wants to be a first tier company can be a better buy. Sometimes buying the number one or two companies with steady profits is better. The variable is to ensure management is doing what you think they should be doing.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time- to raising questions.