But why is it called yellow journalism? Well, the whole purpose was to sell more papers for
Joseph Pulitzer's
New York World and
William Randolph Hearst's
San Francisco Examiner and New York
Morning Journal. They did this not only with
sensational and
scandalous news coverage, but with the inclusion of illustrations and comic strips.
In early 1896 Pulitzer began publishing color comic sections which included a comic called "The Yellow Kid" (a quite unfunny comic about a bald kid with big ears and buck teeth who talks funny). The strip was very popular (am I the only one who feels that this generation had an unfathomable sense of humor?), and after nine months the author, R.F. Outcault was lured away by Hearst. Pulitzer countered by publishing a copy-cat version of The Yellow Kid, who was also becoming a merchandising phenomenon, appearing on keychains, postcards and similar trinkets.
It was around this time that the term yellow journalism came into common usage to describe the activities of these newspapers.