Pulitzer, Joseph (1847-1911)

Hungarian-born US newspaper publisher. He acquired The World in 1883 in New York City and, as a publisher, his format set the style for the modern newspaper. After his death, funds provided in his will established in 1912 the school of journalism at Columbia University and the annual Pulitzer Prizes in journalism, literature, and music (from 1917).

Pulitzer went to the USA in 1864 and became a citizen in 1867. A Democrat, he merged two St Louis newspapers and published in 1878 the successful St Louis Post-Dispatch. He made The World into a voice of the Democratic Party. During a circulation battle with rival publisher William Randolph Hearst's papers, he and Hearst were accused of resorting to ‘yellow journalism,’ or sensationalism.