George R. Hearst Jr., chairman of the Hearst Corporation and the oldest grandson of the media titan William Randolph Hearst, died on Monday in Palo Alto, Calif. He was 84.

The cause was complications of a stroke, said Lisa Bagley, a spokeswoman for the corporation.

Mr. Hearst was a director of Hearst, a privately held corporation, for more than 50 years and its chairman since 1996, helping to steer the company as it expanded its interests in newspapers, magazines, television stations, cable television, real estate and other enterprises.

It currently owns 15 daily newspapers, including The San Francisco Chronicle, The Houston Chronicle, The San Antonio Express-News and The Albany Times Union. It also owns 36 weekly newspapers and more than 300 magazines, including Cosmopolitan, Esquire, Good Housekeeping and Popular Mechanics. Last year, it acquired nearly 100 magazines in 14 countries from the Lagardère Group, a French-based conglomerate.