Background
Bennett was born on September 1, 1795, in Keith, Scotland, to a prosperous Roman Catholic family.
Bennett in 1851 or 1852
Bennett was born on September 1, 1795, in Keith, Scotland, to a prosperous Roman Catholic family.
Bennett was trained for the priesthood at a Roman Catholic seminary in Aberdeen; however, with the independence which characterized his entire life he left home at the age of 20 and in 1819 emigrated to North America.
In 1829 Bennett effected a merger between the Enquirer and the Morning Courier and became an associate editor of the new daily; in 1832, however, he lost this job because of his political views. After the failure of several ventures in the field of politically oriented papers, Bennett concluded that such papers were narrow in scope, subservient to politicians, and often corrupt.
On May 6, 1835, James launched the New York Herald, a one-cent daily, in which he widened the coverage of news. At the time New Yorkers already had a choice of more than a dozen daily newspapers, and the Herald 's chances for success were poor. But in the next 37 years he built the Herald into the newspaper with the largest circulation in the world.
Bennett aggressively sought sex and crime news and covered such stories in full and shocking detail. He was among the first to recognize and exploit the value of pictures in journalism. He spent thousands of dollars on pony expresses to get the news quickly, and he used the newly developed telegraph more fully than any of his contemporaries. Herald was the first to offer advertisers to pay a one hundred percent advance, which subsequently became standard practice in the industry. Bennett was also at the forefront of technology for collecting and presenting news and began to provide articles with illustrations that was made with xylography. In 1839, for the first time he took an exclusive interview with the US President, Martin Van Buren.
During the Mexican War and the Civil War, the Herald usually received stories from the battlefield days ahead of the dispatches that were sent to the War Department in Washington. The Herald in the mid-nineteenth century was among the most profitable newspapers in the world.
Bennett's salary of about $400, 000 a year made him one of the wealthiest Americans of his time. He retired in 1867 and was succeeded by his son and namesake. He died on June 1, 1872, in New York City.
Bennett supported James Buchanan as tensions rose over slavery. He endorsed John C. Breckinridge for the 1860 presidential campaign, then shifted to John Bell. He promoted George B. McClellan in 1864, but endorsed no candidate. Although he opposed Abraham Lincoln, Bennett backed the Union.
Quotations:
"I have made mistakes but I have never made the mistake of claiming that I have never made one."
"Many a good newspaper story has been ruined by over verification."
It is known that Bennett suffered from strabismus for most of his life. In one case he was described as follows: "he squint in his eye so terribly that when he looked at me with one eye, he looked at the mayor's office with another."
On June 6, 1840, Bennett married Henrietta Agnes Crean, with whom he had three children, including James Gordon Bennett and Jeanette Gordon Bennett, who became the wife of businessman and diplomat Isaac Bell Jr.