Hearst Corp

For the better part of a century, the mountains and coastal moors that William Randolph Hearst regarded as the most beautiful countryside on earth has remained almost as wild and empty as when he first saw them. Along with neighboring Big Sur, this is one of those epic stretches of sculpted rock, roiling sea and teeming wildlife that makes the California coast one of nature's grand stage sets. Yet this land is also private property.

One of the longest-serving chief executives in the media industry is stepping down. Frank A. Bennack Jr., chief executive of Hearst Corp. since 1979, will give up that title in June. Steven Swartz, currently president and chief operating officer, will become CEO. Bennack will remain vice chairman of the Hearst Board. Although best known for its magazine unit, which includes Cosmopolitan and Esquire, Hearst also has a major presence in the TV industry. It owns stakes in several powerful cable networks including ESPN, A&E, History and Lifetime.

Several possible buyers surfaced Tuesday for the venerable San Francisco Examiner, reviving last-minute hopes that the threatened newspaper might continue its run as the city's colorful afternoon daily. Hearst Corp., the New York-based parent company of the Examiner, announced in a terse statement that it had received "several indications of interest" by its self-imposed Tuesday deadline for the sale of the newspaper. But Hearst declined to name the suitors.

Scott Sassa has resigned as president of entertainment and syndication of Hearst Corp. Sassa's resignation was confirmed Thursday after the New York Post published a story saying Sassa had been cavorting with strippers and one -- in partnership with her boyfriend -- had tried to blackmail him and sent texts he'd written to senior officials at the magazine and television company. A Hearst spokesman declined to comment beyond confirming Sassa's resignation. Sassa did not immediately respond to request for comment.

It wasn't so long ago that Hearst Corp. was seen as the stodgy old man of the media world. The company that William Randolph Hearst founded in 1887 was burdened with troubled newspapers in central cities and run by a management whose highest goal, many outsiders felt, was to cling desperately to the faded glory of its past. In this decade, the New York-based company has moved with a new vigor.

Hearst Corp. said it would boost its investment in Hearst-Argyle Television Inc. to as much as 82%, less than two months after dropping a plan to buy out minority investors. The purchase of as many as 8 million additional shares will allow Hearst Corp. to consolidate results of Hearst-Argyle for U.S. income tax, New York-based Hearst-Argyle said in a regulatory filing. As of Wednesday, Hearst Corp. owned a 74% stake.

Hearst Corp., publisher of the San Francisco Chronicle and almost 200 magazines, plans to offer about $593.1 million for the stock of Hearst-Argyle Television Inc. it doesn't already own. The cash offer of $23.50 a share represented a 15% premium over Hearst-Argyle's closing share price Thursday, closely held Hearst Corp. said. Hearst Corp. owns a 73% stake in Hearst-Argyle, whose sales and profit have been hurt by a decline in advertising revenue. Hearst-Argyle shares jumped $4.

Subject to a will that threatens rebellious heirs with disinheritance, descendants of William Randolph Hearst are just now daring to break a long silence over the management of their legendary holdings. The impetus for speaking out is the controversy over a proposed commercial development on the 77,000-acre Hearst ranch at San Simeon. The rare public disagreements have brought into view an underlying division between at least some members of the famous family and its hired managers.

Tribune Co. agreed to sell two Connecticut newspapers to Hearst Corp. for $62.4 million, less than Gannett Co. had planned to pay for them before canceling the deal in May. The Stamford Advocate and Greenwich Time will be managed by Denver-based MediaNews Group Inc. in a joint venture with Hearst, said Chicago-based Tribune, also parent of the Los Angeles Times. Connecticut Atty. Gen. Richard Blumenthal said his office planned to investigate the sale to see if it violates antitrust laws.

Hearst Corp. continued its push to become a force in unscripted programming. The media conglomerate struck an agreement to acquire a 50% stake in NorthSouth Productions, whose television credits include "Say Yes to the Dress. " Terms of the deal were not disclosed. "This partnership gives us a significantly stronger presence in cable network production, which is experiencing a steady growth in overall demand,” said Hearst Chairman Frank Bennack. Although Hearst is still best known as a newspaper and magazine publisher, it has ownership stakes in cable networks A&E, History, Lifetime and ESPN.

Consulting firm Beck Media & Marketing is acquiring Insignia Public Relations, which is run by veteran Hollywood media strategist Eddie Michaels. While Beck Media & Marketing focuses primarily on the digital space, Michaels is something of an old school public relations man who wotks with both actors and producers including Illumination Entertainment, the family animation company behind "Despicable Me. " Michaels is also something of a crisis specialist and last week was retained by "Two and a Half Men" co-star Angus T. Jones after a video of the actor blasting the show became public.

Phoebe Hearst Cooke, who was a granddaughter of publishing tycoon William Randolph Hearst and used one of the nation's biggest fortunes to support a variety of philanthropic causes, has died. She was 85. Cooke, who had pneumonia, died Sunday in a Templeton, Calif., hospital, according to a statement from the Hearst Corp., the media company she served as a director for 36 years. Her twin brother, George Randolph Hearst Jr., who was a former publisher of the Los Angeles Herald Examiner, died in June after a stroke.

The demise of the Hearst newspaper empire in Los Angeles began in 1962 when publisher George Randolph Hearst Jr. abandoned the morning newspaper market. Hearst and the company that owned the Los Angeles Times made what some viewed as a back-room deal: At almost the same time, they folded editions that directly competed with each other. A sister paper of The Times, the afternoon daily Mirror, stopped publishing while the Hearst Corp. "merged" the morning Examiner with the afternoon Herald-Express.

John Randolph Hearst Jr. Grandson and heir of William Randolph Hearst John Randolph Hearst Jr., 77, a grandson of media titan William Randolph Hearst and heir to the family fortune, died Friday in New York, Hearst Corp. said in a statement. The cause was not disclosed. Nicknamed "Bunky," Hearst spent most of his career at the company his grandfather founded. Besides serving on the board, he was a trustee of the Hearst Family Trust and a director of the Hearst Foundations.

Hearst Corp. said "You're hired" to mega-television producer Mark Burnett. Hearst and the producer of such popular reality shows as "The Apprentice" and "Survivor" on Monday announced a 50/50 joint venture that will charge Burnett with the task of creating television shows for the media giant. Hearst owns more than two dozen TV stations along with stakes in cable TV networks Lifetime, A&E, History Channel and ESPN as well as newspapers and magazines. "We were not looking to be in the television production business," Scott Sassa, president of Hearst Entertainment & Syndication, said in an interview.

As state officials near a key decision on the $95-million deal to preserve Hearst Ranch, the terms of the transaction are coming under increasing criticism that the deal is too generous to the Hearst Corp. The latest critique, from the legislative analyst's office, a nonpartisan fiscal watchdog, contends that the deal may be based on a faulty appraisal and lacks specific, enforceable provisions to protect wildlife and rare plants.

Hearst to Raise Ad Rates 5%: The New York-based company also said it will raise prices and slash circulation by 10% in the sharpest response yet by a magazine publisher to rising paper costs. In an internal memo, the publisher of 13 titles including Esquire, Harper's Bazaar and Popular Mechanics said its paper costs have risen 37% from a year ago and that more increases are expected. Hearst Corp.

Rupert Murdoch's quest to find a way to get people to pay for news online continued Monday as News Corp. made two investments in digital technology that could be key to the mission. News Corp., parent of the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post as well as newspapers in Britain and Australia, bought Skiff, a maker of software that delivers information to tablets, smart phones and e-readers. The conglomerate also acquired a stake in media entrepreneur Steve Brill's Journalism Online venture, which has been developing a mechanism for newspapers and magazines to collect revenue from their online readers.

Five major publishers -- Conde Nast Publications, Hearst Corp., Meredith Corp., News Corp. and Time Inc. -- announced Tuesday that they would join forces to develop an online storefront to rival Amazon.com Inc. The companies -- which publish such titles as Sports Illustrated, the Wall Street Journal, Better Homes and Gardens, Wired and Vanity Fair -- said their venture would sell newspapers and magazines online but could also be used to sell digital comics and books. As more readers cancel their print subscriptions in favor of browsing stories online, which has led to precipitous drops in advertising revenue, traditional media companies have been frantically experimenting with ways to deliver and make money from digital content.