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 book are wonderful account of the newspapers being activist and talking larger than life roles about politics – tariffs and the McKinley Presidential race with backer Mark Hanna; the Cuban American war; and sometimes the newspapers were much better than the police in describing murders or other police investigations.

After WW I, Hearst newspapers were bringing in $100 million a year in revenues with a profit of $12 million. This was good because Mr. Hearst seem to be the one of the few people in the world that could not live off at least $10 million a year. The newspaper chain increased to 26 newspapers in 18 cities, publishing magazines such as Cosmo, Good Housekeeping, Harper’s Bazaar; a radio network, a film studio; blocks of Manhattan real estate. In addition, many people know of his California home – Hearst Castle with is 71,000 sq ft. surrounded by acres of gardens, pools and ranchland. The home is located in San Simeon between Los Angles and San Francisco.

After the 1920’s newspapers changed. They would never be so expansive, competitive and influential and thus they matured as the 20th century brought profit taking and consolidation. It also brought a change in advertising revenues. For many years, circulation was the most important revenue source, slowly advertising became more important and business managers would only need as many readers that would keep advertisers happy. The era of the aggressive, crusading, politically changed, self promoting, polarizing audience building of the warrior owner editor changed.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, by definition many of these companies will be considered more bland because they already have a lock on making profits on a regular and consistent basis. For dividend investors as long as they can do this to pay the dividend how aggressive the company is or is not helps in deciding to keep the shares for a long time. The aggressive type might be exciting to read about, but the mature company with a lock on multiple advertising rates makes for a better company to own.

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