Abstract
The year 1914 can be considered the end of an historic period in New York journalistic history. Many of the giant publishers and editors were passing from the scene. Joseph Pulitzer had died in 1911 and Whitelaw Reid ended his active public life in 1912. During the First World War death would claim another veteran of the New York press, James Gordon Bennett, Jr. Although several great New York journalists survived, most notably William Randolph Hearst and Adolph S. Ochs, the era of personal journalism had come to an end. Leading New York newspapers for the first time displayed the characteristics which distinguished the modern newspaper.1
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References
Frank Luther Mott, American Journalism: A History, 1690–1960 (New York, 1962), 593–609. Mott entitles his section on the period 1914–1940, “The Modern Newspaper.”
Harry, M. Scoble, The Press and Politics (Boston, 1957), 1–2; Mott, American Journalism, 593–608; George Soule and Vincent P. Carosso, American Economic History (New York, 1957), 358.
These figures and all circulation statistics contained in this chapter are based on N. W. Ayer and Son, American Newspaper Annual (Philadelphia, 1914).
George Britt, Forty Years—Forty Millions (New York, 1935), 238–41. Munsey was the publisher who, according to William A. White, “contributed to the journalism of his day the talent of a meat-packer, the morals of a money changer, and the manners of an undertaker.”
Gerald W. Johnson, An Honorable Titan (New York, 1946), 172–238.
Elmer Davis, The History of the New York Times,1851–1921 (New York, 1921), 175–242; John V. Hinkel, “The Contribution of Adolph S. Ochs to Journalism,” (Unpublished M.S. Thesis, Columbia University, 1931), 8–35; Gay Talese, The Kingdom and the Power (New York, 1969), 160–66.
Barnet Fine, Giant of the Press (New York, 1933), 35–60. Van Anda’s classic achievement before the World War was the coverage of the Titanic story. See Meyer Berger, The Story of the New York Times 1851–1951 (New York, 1951), 193–201.
Neil MacNeil, Without Fear or Favor (New York, 1940), 119–21, 143–45.
Davis, The History of the New York Times,1851–1921, 276–81; Berger, The Story of the New York Times, 165–67.
Ibid., 132–34, 208; Davis, The History of the New York Times, 275–76; Johnson, An Honorable Titan, 196–97.
Ibid., 189–94; Hinkel, loc. cit., 45.
F. Fraser Bond, Mr. Miller of “The Times”: Story of An Editor (New York, 1931), 115.
Don C. Seitz, The James Gordon Bennetts: Father and Son (Indianapolis, 1928), 61, 98, 184; Richard O’Connor, The Scandalous Mr. Bennett (Garden City, N.Y., 1926), 103–6.
The rise of the Times was not the only reason for the decline of the Herald. The editor was indicted in 1905 for misuse of the Herald’s personals column Advertisements placed under such subdivisions as “massage,” “manicure,” “medical,” and “business opportunities” were consistently used for immoral purposes. See Kenneth Stewart and John Tebbel, Makers of Modern Journalism (New York, 1952), 56–58.
In Paris, Bennett published the Paris Herald, which was the only Parisian newspaper that refused to join the French government’s flight to Bordeaux as the Germans advanced in 1914. The story is told in Al Laney’s Paris Herald: The Incredible Newspaper (New York, 1947), 52–57.
There are numerous studies of Hearst and his journalistic career. Most of the following summary is based on John Tebbel, The Life and Good Times of William R. Hearst (New York, 1952); Oliver Carlson and Ernest S. Bates, Hearst,Lord of San Simeon (New York, 1936); Ferdinand Lundberg, Imperial Hearst: A Social Biography (New York, 1936); W. A. Swanberg, Citizen Hearst (New York, 1961). Lundberg is hostile; Carlson and Bates are also critical. Tebbel’s is generally considered the most balanced biography.
Senator George Hearst of California.
According to one historian of American journalism, Hearst “broke into New York with all the discreet secrecy of a wooden-legged burglar having a fit on a tin roof.” James M. Lee, History of American Journalism (New York, 1917), 373.
The excesses of that battle inspired Ochs to use the slogan, “All the News That’s Fit to Print.”
Joseph Wisan, The Cuban Crisis As Reflected in the New York Press (New York, 1935), 458; see also Marcus M. Wilkerson, Public Opinion and the Spanish-American War (Baton Rouge, La., 1932), 62–132. One diplomatic historian goes as far as to state: “The Spanish-American war in a very real sense was a war for newspapers, by newspapers, and of newspapers.” Thomas A. Bailey, The Man in the Street (New York, 1948), 308.
One of the chief permanent effects of yellow journalism was the enlargement and blackening of headlines and the use of the so-called “banner” headline. See infra, 16 for the revival of such headlines after the outbreak of war.
Oliver Carlson, Brisbane (New York, 1937), 132–35. See Will Irwin, “Yellow Journalism” in Edwin H. Ford and Edwin Emery, ed., Highlights in the History of the Press (Minneapolis, 1954), 267–83, for the development of Brisbane’s editorial technique.
During March and April, 1914, the Journal and American ran a series of anti-repeal cartoons, many of which showed Britain “reconquering” America.
The most recent study of Pulitzer is George Juergens, Joseph Pulitzer and the New York World (Princeton, 1966), which emphasizes the early years in New York. Also useful are W. A. Swanberg, Pulitzer (New York, 1967); Don C. Seitz, Joseph Pulitzer — His Life and Letters (New York, 1924); James W. Barrett, Joseph Pulitzer and His World (New York, 1941). The most complete treatment is William R. Reynolds, “Joseph Pulitzer,” (Unpublished Ph. D. thesis, Columbia University, 1950).
Barrett, Joseph Pulitzer, 322–24; Seitz, Joseph Pulitzer, 416–20.
Oswald G. Villard, The Disappearing Daily (New York, 1944), 254.
Barrett, Joseph Pulitzer, 182–88.
Pulitzer, especially during his later years, paid special attention to editorials. His secretary notes: “Although his supervision of the paper extended to every branch, from advertizing to news; from circulation to color-printing, it was upon the editorial page that he concentrated his best energies and keenest observation.” Alleyne Ireland, Joseph Pulitzer: Reminiscences of a Secretary (New York, 1914), 200.
John L. Heaton, Cobb of “The World” (New York, 1924) contains a short biography of Cobb as well as a sampling of important editorials.
Seitz, Joseph Pulitzer, 232–33, 251, 346–51.
A contemporary of Cobb describes him as “the staunchest defender Woodrow Wilson’s policiesChrw(133) ever had in the Democratic press.” Edward P. Mitchell, Memoirs of an Editor (New York, 1921), 389.
Henry L. Stoddard, As I Knew Them (New York, 1927), 482–87.
Cf. infra, 116–17.
Harry W. Baehr, The New York Tribune Since the Civil War (New York, 1936), 217, 242–49, 273; Royal Cortissoz, The Life of Whitelaw Reid (2 vols., New York, 1921), II, 122–26, 178, 299–300.
Frank M. O’Brien, The Story of “The Sun” (New York, 1928), 6, 61–62, 173. Dana also founded the Evening Sun in 1887 which was destined to outlive the morning paper by almost two decades.
Ibid., 198–99; Mitchell, Memoirs,373. The Sun supported Taft in 1912.
R. Heathcote Heindel, “A Pre-War British Analysis of the American Press,” Journalism Quarterly, Vol. XIV (December, 1937), 362. This pre-war analysis was based on confidential dispatches sent by Lord Bryce to the Foreign Office while he was Ambassador to the United States, 1907–1913. See Mitchell, Memoirs, 366–70, for further reference to Morgan’s influence on the Sun.
In 1914, the owner of the papers, William C. Reich, attempted without success to bring suit against the Associated Press under the anti-trust laws.
Mitchell, Memoirs,376–79; O’Brien, The Story of “The Sun,” 200–204. 4° Britt, Forty Years — Forty Millions, 160–61.
New York Press, January 8, 1913.
It was Wardman who coined the phrase, “yellow journalism.” See Allen Churchill, Park Row (New York, 1958), 294.
Britt, Forty Years — Forty Millions, 238.
Allen Nevins, The Evening Post: A Century of journalism (New York, 1922), 438–41. In 1918, Oswald Garrison Villard, son of Henry Villard, sold the Post to Thomas Lamont, a member of the firm of J. P. Morgan and Company. Ibid., 578.
Ibid., 441–44, 519–30. See Diana Klebanow, “Edwin L. Godin and the American City” (Unpublished Ph. D. thesis, New York University, 1965), 17–28, for Godkin’s editorship of the Post.
Nevins, The Evening Post, 568–79. Allen Nevins served on the Post’s editorial board under Ogden during the war years.
In 1913, however, a Saturday colored tabloid supplement was added. During the war, banner headlines were introduced, a political cartoon appeared, and Fontaine Fox offered his “Toonerville Trolley.”
Lord Bryce, quoted in Heindel, loc. cit., 361. 99 Quoted in Mott, American Journalism, 357.
Arthur S. Link, Wilson: The New Freedom (Princeton, 1956), 84. A large number of these sheets have been saved and are in the Wilson Papers in the Library of Congress, Manuscript Division. Wilson placed so much value on the information he derived from this source that he had the sheets sent to him while he was in Paris.
Nevins, The Evening Post, 454. The President’s grandfather, James Wilson, was a newspaper editor. James E. Pollard, The Presidents and the Press (New York, 1947), 631.
Lansing Papers, quoted in H. C. Peterson, Propaganda for War: The Campaign Against American Neutrality, 1914–1917 (New York, 1937).
Woodrow Wilson to Frank I. Cobb, March 4, 1915, The Papers of Woodrow Wilson, Series II, Library of Congress, Manuscript Division.
Woodrow Wilson to Adolph S. Ochs, November 20, 1916, The Papers of Woodrow Wilson, Series III, Volume 34, Library of Congress, Manuscript Division.
T. St. John Gaffney, Breaking the Silence (New York, 1930), 8.
Walter Millis, Road to War, America: 1914–1917 (New York, 1935), 55.
Johann von Bernstorff, My Three Years in America (New York, 1920), 27. In his study of American opinion during the war, Jean Jules Jusserand, French Ambassador to the United States from 1902 to 1925, makes reference only to New York dailies when discussing American press reactions. J. J. Jusserand, Le Sentiment Américain Pendant La Guerre (Paris, 1931), passim. For British estimates of New York’s journalistic importance, see infra, chapters 2, 5, 6 and 7.
The story of these reporters is told in Emmet Crozier, American Reporters on the Western Front (New York, 1959).
Victor Rosewater, History of Cooperative Newsgathering in the United States (New York, 1930), 287–302.
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O’Keefe, K.J. (1972). Introduction: The New York Press in 1914. In: A Thousand Deadlines. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-7608-6_1
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