Industrial context

The history of Hearst

On March 4, 1887, William Randolph Hearst places his name on the masthead of the San Francisco Examineras "Proprietor" for the first time, marking the beginning of Hearst Corporation. In 1896 with William Randolph Hearst’s encouragement, Richard Outcault developed The Yellow Kid,” transforming a simple gag panel into the first true example of the comic strip. “The Yellow Kid” leads the charge in Hearst’s trailblazing American Humourist comic supplement. The next year, Hearst introduced “The Katzenjammer Kids” in the New York Journal. King Features still distributed the strip, making it the longest-running newspaper comic in history. Then in 1900 The Good Housekeeping Institute, a precursor to the FDA, was founded 15 years after its namesake magazine to improve the lives of consumers and their families through education and product evaluation. In 1912 and 1913 Hearst’s New York Journal introduces the first full page of weekday daily comics and Hearst’s New York Journal introduced the first full page of weekday daily comics. By 1933 Harper’s BAZAAR was one of the first fashion magazines to do a shoot on location and show a model in motion and in 1940 Harper’s BAZAAR’s Editor-in-Chief Carmel Snow famously featured a photograph on the cover, until then covers featured art and illustrations. Harper’s BAZAAR became the first women’s fashion magazine to feature a man, actor Steve McQueen, on the cover in February 1965. Esquire became a Hearst publication in 86 and at the end of the century O, The Oprah Magazine, a venture with Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Entertainment Group, was published. It is regarded as one of the most successful magazine start-ups in industry history. The October issue of Esquire in 2008 featured a flexible electronic "paper" cover that allowed words and images to scroll across it, a first for magazines, in celebration of the magazine’s 75th anniversary. In 2010 and 2011 Hearst was the first magazine publisher to make all its titles available to read on every major tablet device and Hearst acquired almost 100 magazines in 14 countries from Lagardère, making it one of the largest monthly magazine publishers in the world and the largest monthly publisher in the U.S.