Joseph Pulitzer | Origin of Street Names

Joseph Pulitzer (1847 - 1911) was an American journalist of Hungarian-Jewish descent and one of the founders of journalism and the press as we know it today on a global level.

He was born in the Hungarian town of Mako, near the present-day border of Romania and Serbia. Growing up in a wealthier family, he received education in private schools. In line with the times, after the Hungarian Revolution, when most young men opted for military careers, young Pulitzer was not accepted into the ranks of the Austro-Hungarian army due to his poor eyesight. Still underage, he then decided to venture across the Atlantic and "seek his fortune" in the United States.

Like most European immigrants, he arrived in America without money, which forced him to take on various jobs. He worked as a dock laborer, cared for mules, worked as a waiter, and even as a gravedigger.

Thanks to his good knowledge of the German language, at one point he became a reporter for the local newspaper Westliche Post in St. Louis, the voice of the German immigrants. This engagement marked the beginning of Joseph Pulitzer's great and fateful journalistic career. After several years, Pulitzer became the owner of the newspaper where he started his reporting career, and shortly thereafter he also acquired another local newspaper, Saint Louis Dispatch. By merging them into one, this newspaper remains the most significant publication in the city at the confluence of the Missouri and Mississippi rivers to this day.

With considerable journalistic and business experience, Pulitzer realized that readers were most interested in true stories and the daily lives of ordinary Americans, which encompassed their existence, humor, crime, corruption, and various types of scandals. Investigative journalism based on truth and aimed at exposing social affairs became the hallmark of Pulitzer's journalism. Interesting topics brought in a large readership, and as readership increases, so do higher circulations. Consequently, Pulitzer soon became a very wealthy and influential man.

Due to this approach, Joseph Pulitzer is considered the founder of sensationalism and the so-called "yellow press" in journalism. In 1883, he became the owner of the New York World newspaper, which was on the brink of collapse at the time. However, with his editorial policy, Pulitzer turned it into the most widely read and profitable newspaper in the United States.

As an influential journalist, businessman, and respected figure, Pulitzer briefly dabbled in politics. He advocated for the establishment of a journalism school at Columbia University, which would be the first of its kind in the world, but he did not live to see it come to fruition.

Joseph Pulitzer passed away in 1911, and thanks to his bequest, his wish was fulfilled the following year. The journalism school at Columbia University is now one of the most prestigious in the world.

As a tribute to one of the most significant figures in global journalism, the Pulitzer Prize for journalism and literature was established in 1917 – one of the most prestigious awards in this field to this day.

Symbolically, a street in the Belgrade neighborhood of Borča is named after Joseph Pulitzer. Joseph Pulitzer's name lives on through this street.