Hearst biographer W. A. Swanberg describes Brisbane as "a one-time socialist who had drifted pleasantly into the profit system.. in some respects a vest-pocket Hearst -- a personal enigma, a workhorse, a madman for circulation, a liberal who had grown conservative, an investor."[REF] .
In 1918, he became editor of the Chicago Herald and Examiner, and in the 1920s became editor of Hearst's first tabloid, the New York Mirror.