James Gordon Bennett Biography

(born Sept. 1, 1795, Newmill, Banffshire, Scot.—died June 1, 1872, New York, N.Y., U.S.) Scottish-born U.S. editor. He immigrated to the U.S. in 1819 and was employed on various newspapers until 1835, when he started The New York Herald. The paper became very successful and introduced many of the methods of modern news reporting. Among other innovations, Bennett published the first Wall Street financial article (1835), established the first correspondents in Europe (1838), maintained a staff of 63 war correspondents during the Civil War, was a leader in using illustrations, introduced a society department, and published the first account in U.S. journalism of a love-nest murder (1836).

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