: For other people named William Randolph Hearst, see William Randolph Hearst (disambiguation)
William Randolph Hearst III (born June 18, 1949) became president of the William Randolph Hearst Foundation in early 2003. Son of William Randolph Hearst, Jr. and grandson of William Randolph Hearst, Hearst is also director of the Hearst Corporation.

Hearst has a son, William Dedalus Hearst, and three daughters, Adelaide, Caroline and Eliza.

Hearst graduated from Harvard University in 1972 with an AB degree in mathematics. He spent years as an employee of the Hearst Corporation, eventually as editor and publisher of the San Francisco Examiner. His grandfather had also headed that paper, though his father had been publisher of the New York Journal American. In some television commercials Hearst III was shown having a conversation with his grandfather's portrait. (In fact, he was only two when his grandfather died.)

In 1976 he left the company to become the managing editor of Outside magazine which was then being started by the Rolling Stone magazine founder Jann Wenner. Hearst returned to the company and newspaper work in 1980.

In 1992 he again left his job at the company, remaining on the board of directors. The following year he succeeded his father as a trustee of the trust that controls the company and chooses the directors.

In 1996 Hearst was a co-founder of the @Home Network Broadband Internet service with Milo Medin, cable companies TCI, Comcast and Cox Cable where he served as the company's first Chief Executive Officer

In 1995 Hearst was named partner at the Silicon Valley venture capital firm of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, where he continues to serve today. He sits on several Boards of Directors of companies in which the firm has investments, including Hearst-Argyle Television and Juniper Networks.