Newspapers Become Big Business

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The Civil War, which altered so many things in the United States, also changed American newspaper journalism. A new reporting technique emerged as telegraphic dispatches from the war zones were transformed into "headlines" to give the reader the main points of longer stories that followed. Because telegraph lines were unreliable and often failed, the opening paragraphs of the news story, the "lead," told the most important facts. The rest of the story contained details. If the telegraph line broke during a story, at least the most important part would probably get through. Thus the "inverted-pyramid" style of reporting was developed.

After the war ended, the country underwent major social changes. From 1870 to 1900 the total population doubled, and the urban population tripled. Mass production techniques changed the economic structure. Immigration brought even more people to the cities, especially in the North and East. Newspaper growth was even greater than that of the population. The number of dailies quadrupled from 1870 to the turn of the century; circulation showed a fivefold increase. One trend was clear: Newspapers were becoming big business. As circulation went up, so did operating cost and initial investment. Bennett was able to start the Herald for around $500. Greeley invested $44,000 in the Tribune in 1841. Ten years later, the Times was started on an investment of $50,000. In 1883, the New York World was sold for $346,000. Eleven year- later, the New York Morning Journal was sold for $1 million. But rewards were also high. It was estimated that the World made about $1 million a year in profits by the mid-1890s. A second trend also stood out: The newspaper industry was dominated in this period by several powerful and outspoken individuals.

Joseph Pulitzer came to the United States from Hungary. He was not a promising candidate for the most-likely-to-succeed award. He first tried a career in the military but was turned down by the British Army, the Austrian Army, and the French Foreign Legion. He was finally accepted into the Union Army during the Civil War but was nearly court-martialed for striking a noncommissioned officer. Unable to find work in New York after the war because he could speak little English, he asked his friends where he should go in order to learn his new language. His friends evidently played a practical joke on him and directed him to St. Louis, a city that then had the largest proportion of non-English-speaking immigrants in the country. After working at a string of unsuccessful jobs in St. Louis, Pulitzer became interested in journalism and realized he had found his calling. In 1878, he bought the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and quickly turned it into a success. Just five years later, he was ready to try his hand in the high-stakes world of New York City journalism. The New York World, a paper in financial trouble, was for sale. Pulitzer bought it. In a little more than a year, circulation increased from 15,000 to 100,000. Two years later it topped the quarter-million mark.

Pulitzer had obviously found a formula for newspaper success, and his innovations are worth considering. First, Pulitzer introduced new practices that appealed to adver­tisers: He reserved more space for ads and sold his paper on the basis of circulation. Second, Pulitzer used illustrations, clean page makeup, and simple writing to extend his paper's appeal to immigrants with few skills in English. Third, the World never failed to promote itself in its own pages. Circulation figures were printed on the front page. Stunts were used to promote circulation. Pulitzer sent reporter Nelly Bly on a round-the-world trip to break the time mentioned in Jules Verne's Around the World in 80 Days. Ms. Bly spent a night in a haunted house, went down in a diving bell, and worked in the Salvation Army. Her stories on these experiences helped Pulitzer build readership. Fourth, Pulitzer attracted a mass readership by reintroducing the sensationalized news of the penny-press era into his paper. In his first issue, Pulitzer led with a report of a storm that devastated New Jersey and included on his front page an interview with a condemned slayer, an item about a hanging, and a tearjerker about a wronged servant girl. Pulitzer loved headlines with alliteration. If alliteration could be mixed with sex, crime, and violence, so much the better, as these examples indicate: "Little Lotta's Lovers," "Baptized in Blood," "Jim-Jams in the Jury," and "A Preacher's Perfidy." Finally, Pulitzer endorsed the notion that a newspaper should promote the general welfare of its readers, especially the underprivileged. Although Pulitzer did not originate the idea, he went to great lengths to put it into practice. The paper crusaded against the abuses of big business and corrupt politicians. In 1833, a heat wave caused many infant deaths in New York's overcrowded slums. The World quickly produced headlines: "How Babies Are Baked," "Little Lines of Hearses." (Alliteration was also mixed in with crusades.) Naturally, the World's support of the working class made it a favorite among the many low-income immigrants then living in New York.

Hearst, like Pulitzer before him, then invaded the big league-New York City. In 1895, he bought the New York Journal. Soon, Pulitzer and Hearst were engaged in a fierce circulation battle as each paper attempted to out-sensationalize the other. As one press critic put it, the duel between these two spread "death, dishonor and disaster" all over page one. Sex, murder, popularized medicine; pseudoscience, self-promotion, and human-interest stories filled the two papers. This type of reporting became known as yellow journalism (named after a cartoon character, the Yellow Kid, who wore a bright yellow nightshirt), and whatever its faults, it sold newspapers.

The battle between Pulitzer and Hearst reached its climax with the Spanish- American War in 1898. In fact, many historians have argued that the newspapers were an important factor in shaping public opinion in favor of hostilities. When the battleship Maine was blown up in Havana Harbor, the Journal offered a $50,000 reward for the arrest of the guilty parties. Circulation jumped over the million marks. War was finally declared in April, and the World and the Journal pulled out all the stops. Hearst chartered a steamer and equipped it with printing presses. He also brought down his yacht and sailed with the U.S. fleet in the battle of Santiago. The Journal put out forty extras in a single day.

Yellow journalism tapered off after this episode, although traces would persist for another decade. Pulitzer, in ill health, finally withdrew from the battle with Hearst around 1900. Although the period of yellow journalism cannot be said to have been proudest moment in the history of the American newspaper, some positive features did emerge from it. In the first place, it brought enthusiasm, energy, and verve to the practice of journalism. Aggressive reporting and investigative stories were emphasized by the World and the Journal. Second, it brought wide exposure to prominent authors and led to some fine examples of contemporary writing. Stephen Crane, Frank Norris, Dorothy Dix, and Mark Twain all wrote for newspapers during this period (1880- 1905). Further, yellow journalism helped popularize the use of layout and display devices-banner headlines, pictures, color printing-that would go on to characterize modern journalism.