For San Franciscans, modern journalistic history began in 1887 when the late William Randolph Hearst, then 23, received the morning Examiner as a gift from his wealthy father. Almost overnight Hearst turned his wan and unimpressive present into the gaudy forerunner of a 26-paper chain,* and within four years he had sent it soaring ahead of the rival Chronicle on the way to a supremacy reflected in the proud masthead boast: "The monarch of the dailies." Last week, after nearly seven decades as Northern California's biggest and most influential newspaper, the Examiner was...
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