Short answers, pulled from the story.
William Randolph Hearst took control of the San Francisco Daily Examiner in 1887 when he was 23 years old. He inherited the struggling publication from his father George Hearst who was a mining magnate and U.S. senator. Within a decade the paper grew from 15,000 circulation to over 20 million readers.
The Great Depression led to the liquidation of the Hearst Corporation in 1937. The company was forced to merge morning papers into afternoon papers and sell assets like Cosmopolitan Book to Farrar & Rinehart in 1931. Financial troubles were compounded by spending on Hearst Castle and movie production at Cosmopolitan Productions.
William Randolph Hearst personally instructed his reporters in Germany to provide only positive coverage to Hitler and the Nazis. He fired journalists who refused to write stories favorable to German fascism and gave high-ranking Nazis space to write articles in Hearst press newspapers. Hermann Göring and Alfred Rosenberg were among the high-ranking Nazis who wrote articles in Hearst press newspapers.
William Randolph Hearst died in August 1951 and the Hearst Corporation is now owned by a family trust rather than a public corporation. The trust is administered by a common board of thirteen trustees with five family members and eight outsiders. This structure ensures the company remains under the control of the Hearst family even after the death of all family members alive at the time of William Randolph Hearst's death.
In the 21st century the Hearst Corporation acquired companies like iCrossing Puzzmo Fitch Group MCG Health Motor Trend Group Rodale Inc and BestProducts.com. The company also expanded into broadcasting with WBBH-TV and the Journal Inquirer. Additional acquisitions included Black Book CAMP Systems and Motor.