Pulitzer, Joseph (1847-1911)

Joseph Pulitzer (1847-1911)

Editor and publisher

Source

Recruited to America. Born in Hungary to a prosperous family, Joseph Pulitzer ran away from home at age eighteen to embark on a military carrer. After the Australian army and the French Foreign Legion both rejected him because of his poor eyesight, he signed up with an agent of the Union army of the United States recruiting in Europe in late 1864. At the end of the Civil War he found himself penniless in New York City and worked at a series of miserable jobs. By 1868, however, he had become a citizen and was hired as a reporter for the leading German-language daily in the nation, Carl Schurz’s St. Louis West lie he Post. Pulitzer soon became a top newsman and bought a share of the paper. He was then elected to the Missouri State Assembly and campaigned for the publisher Horace Greeley, who was a presidential candidate in 1872. He left newspapering for a time to return to Europe and marry, but soon returned to the United States and gained membership in the Washington, D.C., bar in 1874.

Papers. In 1878 Pulitzer bought the bankrupt St. Louis Dispatch, merged it with the Post, and created one of the great newspapers in the United States, the Post-Dispatch. Driven by insatiable curiosity and boundless energy, Pulitzer remade American journalism in the last twenty years of the nineteenth century. Claiming to be the champion of the people against injustice and ill-gotten power, he published a statement of policy that read in part: “The Post and Dispatch will serve no party but the people; be no organ of Republicanism but the organ of truth; will follow no causes but its conclusions; will not support the ‘Administration,’ but criticize it; will oppose all frauds and shams wherever and whatever they are; will advocate principles and ideas rather than prejudices and partisanship.” At the same time the paper carried on high-minded crusades against monopolistic power, it also printed sensational stories about adultery and scandal. Furthermore, exaggeration and half-truths also appeared in Pulitzer’s paper.

New York, New Journalism. Although he was a physical wreck from years of hard work, when Pulitzer heard in 1883 that the New York World was for sale, he bought it and quickly turned it into a successful paper. His formula for the New Journalism included sensational headlines and self-promotion. He maintained a strong news department and published an unparalleled editorial page. The World advocated taxes on luxuries, profits, and the wealthy, as well as railing against corruption in government. Those who were suspicious of wealth flocked to the paper, and those who approved of chasing profits disdained it. The World presented news in sensational form; when a heat wave took a terrible toll on children in the slums of New York, the headline in the World read: “How Babies Are Baked.”

Success. Within one year Pulitzer’s Sunday edition circulation reached approximately ninety five thousand, and by 1887 it increased to a quarter of a million. By paying close attention to the fact that four out of five New Yorkers were first- or second-generation Americans and by providing coverage of political figures along with entertainment, Pulitzer captured the public’s imagination. He talked directly to his readers without being condescending. Over the years the worst sensationalism disappeared from the World, while its commitment to the well-written human-interest story never dissipated.

Later Years. Pulitzer added an Evening World in 1887, and three years later he opened a new building on Park Row, at the time the tallest building in New York City. Pulitzer retired in 1890 but continued to monitor the progress of his papers, summoning editors to his various homes or to his yacht. Among the editors who worked at the World were some of the best in the business, including John A. Cockerill, William Merrill, S. S. Carvalho, George Harvey, Frank I. Cobb, Morrill Goddard, and Arthur Brisbane. In his retirement Pulitzer supported the progressive spirit of reform and muckraking in journalism. He also endowed the Columbia School of Journalism and the Pulitzer Prizes. Chronic illness plagued Pulitzer in his remaining years. He died in October 1911 at age sixty-four aboard his yacht in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina.

Source

W. A. Swanberg, Pulitzer (New York: Scribners, 1967).