James Gordon Bennett Sr.
James Gordon Bennett (born September 1, 1795 in New Mill , Keith , Scotland, † June 1, 1872 in New York City ) was an American newspaperman. The editor and founder of the New York Herald , the first one-cent mass newspaper in history (1835), is considered the "father of modern journalism".
He emigrated to the United States in 1819 and had to struggle for a livelihood there for several years until he found a job as a newspaper reporter in 1823 and traveled through the States in this capacity. With increasing fame, he rose to the position of editor of the leading newspaper New York Courier and Enquirer and even took over its business and journalistic management. The editors were no longer satisfied with his course and Bennett had to leave his post.
With his own capital he founded his own newspaper. However, this venture failed, as did another attempt in Philadelphia . It was only with the New York Herald , founded in 1835, that Bennett made his business breakthrough. He started this company as a one-man entrepreneur who worked as a reporter, editor, proofreader, delivery boy and cashier all at the same time around the clock. Both his advertising model and the newspaper form he had invented, the interview (1836) and the sensational design, met with approval from readers and advertisers. In 1839 Bennett conducted the first exclusive interview with US President Martin van Buren . Bennett deployed well-paid correspondents in all branches, used the telegraph to communicate more quickly with them, and even organized a fleet of reporter ships that crossed the Atlantic in order to be the first to intercept and print out ocean liners and thus European news reports.
His son of the same name James Gordon Bennett Jr. (1841-1918), to whom Bennett transferred the management of the company in 1866, sent an expedition under Stanley in 1871 to find Livingstones . After the son's death in 1918, the newspaper could no longer maintain its once leading position in the US newspaper market and in 1924 it merged with its former arch-rival New York Tribune .
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Antonius Lux (ed.): Great men of world history. A thousand biographies in words and pictures. Sebastian Lux Verlag, Munich 1960, p. 47
literature
- Don C. Seitz, The James Gordon Bennetts, Father and Son (1928)
- Oliver Carlson, The Man Who Made News: James Gordon Bennett (1942)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Bennett, James Gordon Sr. |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American founder of the New York Herald |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 1, 1795 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | New Mill , Keith , Scotland |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 1, 1872 |
| Place of death | New York City |