Pulitzer, Joseph

Pulitzer, Joseph
born April 10, 1847, Makó, Hung.
died Oct. 29, 1911, Charleston, S.C., U.S.

Hungarian-born U.S. newspaper editor and publisher.

He immigrated to the U.S. in 1864 to serve in the American Civil War. After the war he became a reporter and then proprietor at German-language newspapers in St. Louis and entered Missouri politics. In 1878 he merged the St. Louis Dispatch (founded 1864) and the Post (founded 1875) into the Post-Dispatch, which soon became the city's dominant evening newspaper. Shifting his interests to New York City, he purchased the World (1883) and founded the Evening World (1887). He helped establish the pattern of the modern newspaper by combining exposés of political corruption and crusading investigative reporting with publicity stunts, self-advertising, and sensationalism. In his will he endowed the Columbia University School of Journalism and established the Pulitzer Prizes.

* * *

▪ American newspaper publisher

born April 10, 1847, Makó, Hung.
died Oct. 29, 1911, Charleston, S.C., U.S.
 American newspaper editor and publisher who helped establish the pattern of the modern newspaper. In his time he was one of the most powerful journalists in the United States.

      Reared in Budapest, Pulitzer sought a military career and emigrated to the United States in 1864 as a recruit for the Union Army in the American Civil War (1861–65). After the war he went to St. Louis, where in 1868 he became a reporter on a German-language daily newspaper, the Westliche Post. In 1871 he bought a share of that paper but soon resold it at a profit. Pulitzer had meanwhile become active in politics, and he was elected to the Missouri state legislature in 1869. In 1871–72 he helped to organize the Liberal Republican Party in Missouri, which nominated Horace Greeley for president in 1872. After the party's subsequent collapse, Pulitzer became and remained a lifelong Democrat.

      In 1874 Pulitzer acquired another St. Louis German paper, the Staats-Zeitung, and advantageously sold its Associated Press franchise to the St. Louis Globe (later Globe-Democrat). Four years afterward he gained control of the St. Louis Dispatch (founded 1864) and the Post (founded 1875) and merged them as the Post-Dispatch, soon the city's dominant evening newspaper. On Oct. 5, 1882, Pulitzer's chief editorial writer shot to death a political opponent of the Post-Dispatch. Public reprobation and his own ill health prompted Pulitzer to shift his newspaper interests to New York (New York World) City, where he purchased (May 10, 1883) a morning paper, the World, from the financier Jay Gould. He soon turned that paper into the leading journalistic voice of the Democratic Party in the United States. Pulitzer founded the World's evening counterpart, the Evening World, in 1887.

      In his newspapers Pulitzer combined exposés of political corruption and crusading investigative reporting with publicity stunts, blatant self-advertising, and sensationalistic journalism. In an effort to further attract a mass readership, he also introduced such innovations as comics, sports coverage, women's fashion coverage, and illustrations into his newspapers, thus making them vehicles of entertainment as well as of information.

      The World eventually became involved in a fierce competition with William Randolph Hearst's New York Morning Journal, and the blatant sensationalism that both newspapers resorted to in espousing the Spanish-American War of 1898 led to the coining of the term “yellow journalism” to describe such practices. Failing eyesight and worsening nervous disorders forced Pulitzer to abandon the management of his newspapers in 1887. He gave up his editorship of them in 1890, but he continued to exercise a close watch over their editorial policies.

      In his will Pulitzer endowed the Columbia University School of Journalism (opened 1912) and established the prestigious Pulitzer Prizes (Pulitzer Prize), awarded annually since 1917.

Additional Reading
W.A. Swanberg, Pulitzer (1967); Julian S. Rammelkamp, Pulitzer's Post-Dispatch, 1878–1883 (1967); George Juergens, Joseph Pulitzer and the New York World (1966).

* * *


Universalium. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно сделать НИР?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • PULITZER, JOSEPH — (1847–1911), American editor and publisher who bought declining newspapers and restored them to national influence. Born in Mako, Hungary, son of a Jewish father and a Roman Catholic mother, Pulitzer emigrated to the U.S. at the age of 17 to… …   Encyclopedia of Judaism

  • Pulitzer, Joseph, Jr. — ▪ 1994       U.S. publisher and art collector (b. May 13, 1913, St. Louis, Mo. d. May 26, 1993, St. Louis), was the grandson of the founder of the St. Louis Post Dispatch, of which he became editor and publisher in 1955 on the death of his… …   Universalium

  • Pulitzer,Joseph — Pu·lit·zer (po͝olʹĭt sər, pyo͞oʹlĭt ), Joseph. 1847 1911. Hungarian born American journalist and newspaper publisher who established and endowed the Pulitzer Prizes. * * * …   Universalium

  • Pulitzer, Joseph — (1847–1911)    US newspaper publisher. Pulitzer, whose father was a Jew, came to the United States from Hungary at the age of seventeen. He went into journalism and became the influential publisher of the St Louis Post Dispatch and then the New… …   Who’s Who in Jewish History after the period of the Old Testament

  • Pulitzer, Joseph — ► (1847 1911) Periodista estadounidense. Fundó la Escuela de Periodismo de la Universidad de Columbia y creó los premios de su nombre para galardonar los mejores trabajos periodísticos y literarios del año. * * * (10 abr., 1847, Makó, Hungría–29… …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • Pulitzer, Joseph — (1847 1911)    American newspaper publisher, of Hungarian origin. Born in Mako, Hungary, of a Jewish father and a Roman Catholic mother, he studied in Budapest. At the age of 17 he went to the US. He served with Lincoln s Calvary. He became a… …   Dictionary of Jewish Biography

  • Pulitzer — Pulitzer, Joseph …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • Pulitzer-Award — Joseph Pulitzer Der Pulitzer Preis wurde von dem aus Ungarn stammenden Journalisten und Zeitungsverleger Joseph Pulitzer gestiftet und wird seit 1917 für hervorragende journalistische Leistungen in den USA verliehen. Jährlich gibt die Pulitzer… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Pulitzer Award — Joseph Pulitzer Der Pulitzer Preis wurde von dem aus Ungarn stammenden Journalisten und Zeitungsverleger Joseph Pulitzer gestiftet und wird seit 1917 für hervorragende journalistische Leistungen in den USA verliehen. Jährlich gibt die Pulitzer… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Pulitzer Prize — Joseph Pulitzer Der Pulitzer Preis wurde von dem aus Ungarn stammenden Journalisten und Zeitungsverleger Joseph Pulitzer gestiftet und wird seit 1917 für hervorragende journalistische Leistungen in den USA verliehen. Jährlich gibt die Pulitzer… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”