Born April 10, 1847

Mako, Hungary

Died October 29, 1911

Charleston, South Carolina

Publisher who created mass-circulation newspapers that strongly affected government policy

Joseph Pulitzer. Getty Images.

"Our Republic and its press will rise or fall together. An able, disinterested, public-spirited press, with trained intelligence to know the right and courage to do it, can preserve that public virtue without which popular government is a sham and a mockery."

Joseph Pulitzer is considered the inventor of the modern newspaper as a part of the mass media, which today refers to an entertainment or information source, including print and electronic sources, designed to appeal to a very large audience rather than to a narrower audience of people with special interests. He turned newspapers, which had been largely devoted to political parties and causes, into an entertainment medium. By doing so, Pulitzer achieved political influence for newspapers that had not existed...