Joseph Pulitzer

Who was Joseph Pulitzer?

Joseph Pulitzer, born Pulitzer József, was a Hungarian-American Jewish newspaper publisher of the St. Louis Post Dispatch and the New York World. Pulitzer introduced the techniques of "new journalism" to the newspapers he acquired in the 1880s. He became a leading national figure in the Democratic Party and was elected Congressman from New York. He crusaded against big business and corruption.

In the 1890s the fierce competition between his World and William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal caused both to use yellow journalism for wider appeal; it opened the way to mass-circulation newspapers that depended on advertising revenue and appealed to readers with multiple forms of news, entertainment and advertising.

Today, he is best known for the Pulitzer Prizes, which were established by money he bequeathed to Columbia University, as was the Columbia School of Journalism. The prizes are given annually to award achievements in journalism and photography, as well as literature and history, poetry, music and drama.