page_title: New York World
section_title: Joseph Pulitzer years
hierarchical_section_title: New York World / History / Joseph Pulitzer years
caption_attribution_description: Cover of the New York World, Christmas 1899, featuring a story by Mark Twain
context_page_description: The New York World was a newspaper published in New York City from 1860 until 1931. The paper played a major role in the history of American newspapers. It was a leading national voice of the Democratic Party. From 1883 to 1911 under publisher Joseph Pulitzer, it was a pioneer in yellow journalism, capturing readers' attention with sensation, sports, sex and scandal and pushing its daily circulation to the one-million mark. It was sold in 1930 and merged into the New York World-Telegram.
context_section_description: Joseph Pulitzer bought the World in 1883 and began an aggressive era of circulation building. Reporter Nellie Bly became one of America's first investigative journalists, often working undercover.  As a publicity stunt for the paper, inspired by the Jules Verne novel Around the World in Eighty Days, she traveled around the planet in 72 days in 1889–1890. In 1890, Pulitzer built the New York World Building, the tallest office building in the world at the time.
  In 1889, Julius Chambers was appointed by Pulitzer as managing editor of the New York World; he served until 1891.
  In 1896, the World began using a four-color printing press; it was the first newspaper to launch a color supplement, which featured The Yellow Kid cartoon Hogan's Alley. It joined a circulation battle with William Randolph Hearst's New York Journal-American. In 1899 Pulitzer along with Hearst were the cause of the newsboys' strike of 1899 which led to Pulitzer's circulation dropping by 70%.
  The World was attacked for being "sensational", and its circulation battles with Hearst's Journal American gave rise to the term yellow journalism. The charges of sensationalism were most frequently leveled at the paper by more established publishers, who resented Pulitzer's courting of the immigrant classes. And while the World presented its fair share of crime stories, it also published damning exposés of tenement abuses. After a heat wave in 1883 killed a disproportionate number of poor children, the World published stories about it, featuring such headlines as "Lines of Little Hearses". Its coverage spurred action in the city for reform. Hearst reproduced Pulitzer's approach in the San Francisco Examiner and later in the Journal American.
  Charles Chapin was hired in 1898 as City Editor of the Evening World. He was most known for embracing the sensational and showing little empathy in the face of tragedy, only taking a more solemn tone when reporting on the assassination of William McKinley in 1901. He controlled the newsroom with an iron fist, and was commonly despised by the journalists who worked for him. Chapin fired 108 newspaper men during his tenure. However, Stanley Walker still referred to him as "the greatest city editor that ever lived." His time at the World ended when, after falling into financial ruin, he murdered his wife in 1918. He was sentenced to Sing Sing Prison and died there in 1930.
  Frank Irving Cobb was employed on a trial basis as the editor of the World in 1904 by publisher Pulitzer. Cobb was a fiercely independent Kansan who resisted Pulitzer's attempts to "run the office" from his home. The elder man was so invested in the paper that he continually meddled with Cobb's work. The two found common ground in their support of Woodrow Wilson, but they had many other areas of disagreement.
  When Pulitzer's son took over administrative responsibility of The World in 1907, his father wrote a precisely worded resignation. Cobb had it printed in every New York paper—except the World. Pulitzer raged at the insult, but slowly began to respect Cobb's editorials and independent spirit. Exchanges, commentaries, and messages between them increased. The good rapport between the two was based largely on Cobb's flexibility. In May 1908, Cobb and Pulitzer met to outline plans for a consistent editorial policy.
  Pulitzer's demands for editorials on contemporary breaking news led to overwork by Cobb. The publisher sent his managing editor on a six-week tour of Europe to restore his spirit. Shortly after Cobb's return, Pulitzer died. Cobb then published Pulitzer's resignation. Cobb retained the editorial policies he had shared with Pulitzer until he died of cancer in 1923.
caption: Special Christmas 1899 section featuring a story by Mark Twain
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