He won a Pulitzer Prize for his interview with Soviet premier, Nikita Khrushchev, and associated commentaries in 1955.

Hearst attended the University of California, Berkeley, and was a member of the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity.

When tax laws changed to prevent the foundations his father had established from continuing to own the corporation, he arranged for the family trust (with the same trustees) to buy the shares and for longtime chief executive Richard E. Berlin, who was going senile, to be eased out to become chairman of the trustees for a period.

Later, William Randolph Hearst Jr. himself headed the trust and served as chairman of the executive committee of the corporation.

At his death, his branch of the family became represented on the trustees by his son, William Randolph Hearst III.