Hearst Invests in Dying Business

William Randolph Hearst built his publishing empire one newspaper at a time. The heads of his company, the Hearst Corporation, are determined to follow in his footsteps, despite all signs that maybe that isn’t the best idea.

Today, Hearst — already owners of 16 daily and 49 weekly newspapers, including the Houston Chronicle and the San Francisco Chronicle — announced it bought eight more of ink-stained wretches from MediaNews Group, Inc. The “jewel” of the bunch is the Connecticut Post (and its companion Web site), but Hearst also now owns weekly papers the Darien News-Review, Greenwich Citizen, Fairfield Citizen-News, New Canaan News-Review, New Milford Spectrum, Norwalk Citizen-News, and Westport News, as well as gaining “management control” of The Advocate, Greenwich Time, and The News-Times.

Admittedly, most of the properties are based in wealthy areas, but still we must ask: newspapers? Really? Were they free? But don’t fret, William. Orson Welles preserved your legacy quite nicely.

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