As America grew during the second half of the 19th century so did Newspapers and Journalism, taking root across the country as the industrial revolution made a way to reach the general population. For the first time in the 1840s the circulation of daily and weekly papers began to evolve into a lucrative business. New steam presses allowed larger companies to print of almost 22,000 papers per hour, allowing events from the day before to be put into the next day’s headlines. During the 1840’s the number of daily newspapers increased by an astounding 84 percent. The press continued part of its political role into this new era as well using its newfound status to have a social influence. After the Civil war from, their role was further solidified as northern papers such as the New York Herald exploited the war with eyewitness accounts and sketches that were printed. This evolving type of journalism, though revolutionary, also brought reporters to use false witnesses in order to ”sensationalize” their news.
This new journalism continued to flourish in the decades after the war with the largest newspapers focused in New York; the Times, the Sun, and the Herald. From this new cultureJoseph Pulitzer, a Hungarian immigrant, worked his way to obtain proprietary interest in a St. Louis publication; the West Che Post. In 1879 he bought the St. Louis Post and Dispatch creating the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Becoming known for his populist approach, Pulitzer “developed his role as the champion of the common man”. Pulitzer purchased the New York World and grew a strong news base from which his New Journalism found great success, especially in its efforts to appeal to the common man, underclasses, and immigrants.
His new style ofJournalism involved an increasingly visual display including maps, cartoons, diagrams, and photographic reproductions. In 1895 a new face emerged in New York, Randolph Hearst, who practiced this Pulitzer-Style journalism and bought The New York/ournal. However the two began to clash as Hearst began to use tactics such as sensationalizing, offering higher salaries to Pulitzer’s employees, and cutting down the his price to a penny, in order to battle Pulitzer‘s New York World. This circulation war however drove both Hearst and Pulitzer to use drastic means in order to increase their circulation, which led to further dramatic titles and exaggeration of stories.
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The two Papers were partially driven to such competition because of their similarities in style, readership, and general democratic affiliation. However as the two papers increased their competition, culminating in the Spanish-American War, they reported with equally increasing inaccuracy. Jumping upon the explosion of Maine, both papers used dramatic headlines and posted rewards for the perpetrator, reporting malicious intent on the half the Spaniards. However there is no evidence it was an attack, as it was most likely an unfortunate random occurrence. However after the war ended the battle died down, and Pulitzer “haunted by his ‘yellow sins’” brought the World Back to its more respected roots.
