OFFBEAT: St. Louis Post-Dispatch a historical Pulitzer newspaper linked to infamous Hearst

DATELINE - - St. Louis - - Philip Potempa is reporting this weekend from Missouri while traveling.

When studying journalism in college, one of the history lessons future reporters are taught about comes from a less than stellar time during the world of newspapers.

In fact, even today, when teaching my Comm 100 Introduction to Mass Media courses at both Valparaiso University and Purdue North Central, the textbook my students use still includes the same examples and mentions from yesterday's newspaper era.

For any readers with a disdain for newspaper "sensationalism," the two men credited with starting the trend (an a real war between countries!) were also the top rivals in their field at the turn-of-the-century.

Newspaper moguls William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer were notorious for competing with one another using large, exaggerated headlines and stories to get readers to buy their newspapers.

So while in St. Louis for the weekend, I was eager to visit our newspaper's sister property, the historic St. Louis Post-Dispatch, which still has nearly a half million Sunday readership, and for more than a century, was the flagship newspaper of Joseph Pulitzer's newspaper chain.

In June 2005, The Times' parent company Lee Enterprises purchased a piece of newspaper history when it acquired the entire Pulitzer Newspaper Chain for $1.5 billion.

And in the marble lobby of the towering downtown St. Louis newspaper building, a bronze bust of Joseph Pulitzer is the first sight guest are greeted with.

Pulitzer and Hearst ushered in what is now referred to as the "Period of Yellow Journalism" and the "Newspaper Circulation Wars," which started in the late 1890s.

Pulitzer, who began in this country as a poor immigrant, transformed the St. Louis Post-Dispatch into a financial success, and then decided to set his sight on New York City, by purchasing The New York World newspaper. He applied his same publishing philosophy of lots of human interest stories, crusades for worthy causes and plenty of promotional fodder within the pages.

His star reporter was also considered a novelty during that time period. Nellie Bly was a female newspaper reporter during a time when women did not work, let alone work in what was considered the tough world of journalism. She, along with Hearst's later female reporter-turned-columnist counterpart Dorothy Kilgallen, were referred to as "sob sisters" for their emotional reporting of trials and crimes, and both also became famed for what is now called "stunt journalism." For example, Bly once faked mental illness to be admitted to a mental hospital to write about the terrible conditions. Another time, Pulitzer paid for Bly to travel around the world as quickly as possible to do it "in less than 80 days" to see if she could "outdo" the fictional account in the popular book of the day "Around the World in 80 Days." (She did it in 72 days.)

Of course, all of this attention and the boost to Pulitzer's newspaper sales angered "old man Hearst," whose real fortune came from his family's Nevada silver mines and whose flagship paper was The San Francisco Examiner, based on the West Coast. After Hearst purchased The New York Journal in 1895, the two men began the battle for readership. The term "yellow journalism" came about because one of the most popular features in Pulitzer's newspapers was a comic strip called "The Yellow Kid," that is, until Hearst hired the cartoonist away from Pulitzer and began running the cartoon feature in his newspaper chain.

The period reached its peak with the two newspaper moguls feverishly covering the growing tensions between Spain and the U.S. As explained by author John Vivian in my college textbook "The Media of Mass Communication," fueled by "hyped atrocity stories it was a no-holds-barred competition."

And when Hearst sent his artist Frederic Remington to Cuba to cover the situation, he cabled back to his boss: "Everything is quiet. There is no trouble here. There will be no war. Wish to return."

And Hearst's now famous reply will forever live on in journalism history: "Please remain. You furnish the pictures. I'll furnish the war."

So when the U.S. battleship Maine exploded in the Havana Harbor, both Pulitzer and Hearst claimed it was an attack on an American vessel from the Spanish, although the explosion was likely accidental.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer. He can be reached at philip.potempa@nwi.com or 219.852.4327.

Today's Celebrity Birthdays

Actress Yvonne Craig ("Batman" TV series) is 72. Jazz drummer Billy Cobham is 66. Syndicated advice columnist Kathy Mitchell of "Annie's Mailbox" is 61. Actress Laurette Spang ("Battlestar Galactica") is 59. Actor Pierce Brosnan and singer/guitarist Richard Page of Mr. Mister are 57. Actress Debra Winger and former Russian Olympic gymnast Olga Korbut are 55. Actress Mare Winningham is 51. Violinist Boyd Tinsley of The Dave Matthews Band is 46. Bassist Krist Novoselic (Nirvana) is 45. Singer Janet Jackson is 44. Actor Brian F. O'Byrne ("Million Dollar Baby") is 43. Singer Ralph Tresvant is 42. Political correspondent Tucker Carlson and actress Tracey Gold are 41. Tennis star Gabriela Sabatini is 40. Country singer Rick Trevino is 39. Actress Tori Spelling is 37. Actress Melanie Lynskey ("Two and a Half Men") is 33. Actress Megan Fox is 24. Actor Marc John Jefferies ("The Tracy Morgan Show") is 20.