When William Randolph Hearst died in 1951, he did not leave any of his five sons in charge of the media empire he had shaped out of the mining and real estate fortune left to him.

Instead, Hearst left his holdings under the stewardship of professional managers: Hearst family members were given five of the thirteen seats on the board of trustees running Hearst Corp.

Today, Hearst owns or manages 27 TV stations, 16 magazines, 12 daily newspapers, including the San Francisco Chronicle, and several cable enterprises.

It also has huge real estate holdings, including timber and agricultural operations in California and commercial properties in New York City and San Francisco. Forbes estimated the corporation’s 1999 revenues at $4.4 billion.