As editor, publisher, and later, chairman of the board of directors, of the Cincinnati Times-Star, Taft was an influential figure in local and national politics throughout the first half of the twentieth century.

Following his graduation from Yale University in 1900, Taft joined the staff of the Cincinnati Times-Star as a reporter, and became the Editor in 1908.

The journalist and author John Gunther, in his book Inside U.S.A. referred to Hulbert Taft as the "most conservative man I met in forty-eight states".

[9] Taft retired as Publisher of the Cincinnati Times-Star in 1954, but remained as chairman of the board of Directors until 1958, when the newspaper was acquired by the E.W.

Eleanor Lawrence Gholson, Taft's third wife, was a distant relative of Virginia's.