The Success Story of Joseph Pulitzer

Joseph Pulitzer was a Hungarian-American Jewish newspaper magnate. He was known as the publisher of New York World and St. Louis Post Dispatch. In the 1880s, Joseph acquired a number of newspapers where he introduced “new journalism". He was a prominent member of the Democratic Party and served as New York Congressman. He was a vocal advocate against corruption. Joseph was associated with keeping the Statue of Liberty in New York.

Joseph was born as Pulitzer József on April 10, 1847 in Mako, Hungary. His family was known as merchants in Mako. His father retired early because their family’s fortune was enough to support the family. The Pulitzers moved to Pest where private tutors were hired to educate the Pulitzer children. But when his father died in 1858, the family’s business went bankrupt and the family became poor. Joseph attempted several times to join different European armies. Then he immigrated to the US.

At age 17, Joseph moved to Boston in 1864. He was recruited by the military for the American Civil War. He was a part of the Lincoln Cavalry and served there for eight months. There, he learned to speak a little English. After the war, he went from New York to New Bedford, Massachusetts then back again to New York, looking for a job. Then he arrived at St. Louis, Missouri where he sold his handkerchief, his only possession for 75 cents.

When he had free time, Joseph went to the St. Louis Mercantile Library to study English. Then, someone recruited him to work for a sugar plantation in Louisiana. After boarding a steamboat about 30 miles down south, Joseph and the rest of the men recruited for the sugar plantation discovered that the jobs were a ruse. They walked their way back to the city. Joseph wrote about this fraud and submitted it to the Westliche Post. It was accepted and officially became Joseph’s first published news story. Joseph eventually became a reporter at Westliche Post.

Joseph purchased a share in Westliche Post in 1872. In 1873, he sold his stakes at a profit. He acquired St. Louis Dispatch and the St. Louis Post in 1879 and merged the two papers to create the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Out of the money Joseph bequeathed to Columbia University, the Pulitzer Prizes were established in 1917 in honor of him. The Pulitzer Prizes are annual awards given to achievers in journalism and photography.