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Pulitzer's Pain

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Several of Joe's friends speculate that Emily uses her massive wealth (she will receive more than $400 million from the sale of Pulitzer alone) as leverage against her stepson. They say that Joe, while disgruntled by the sale, has no access to the Pulitzer fortune and doesn't want to ruin his children's inheritance should Emily include them in her will.

Never one to showcase his wealth, Joe moved in the early 1980s from his Central West End home to a tiny house in the working-class neighborhood of Dogtown, a move that prompted mean-spirited chatter from family onlookers who saw it as a step down the social ladder.

"One would assume that, if you have a great deal of choice, why would you move to Dogtown?" says a family acquaintance.

By the late 1980s, Joe had traded in the beat-up blue station wagon for a Suzuki Samurai that leaked during rainstorms. His wife, Jennifer, drove an old Yugo.

"Jay complained from time to time that he didn't have any money," says a former colleague. "He had cousins who got a lot more income out of the Post-Dispatch than he did, and they didn't even work for the paper. He clearly didn't have much ownership stake."

Still, despite the fallout from his divorce and the installment of Woo as editor, Joe remained optimistic that the paper would be his one day.

"Joe talked occasionally of the succession of the paper," recalls Wiktor Szostalo, who would often accompany Joe on trips to his father's fourteen-acre Ladue to collect firewood. "He hoped that he would ultimately inherit the paper but understood that it didn't have to happen -- that the tradition of passing it down from generation to generation was no longer a foregone conclusion."

In public, his father paid lip service to the notion of his son one day assuming command. In a 1989 speech to members of prestigious business organization the Newcomen Society, Pulitzer III concluded his talk by addressing his son's involvement in the business.

"Family continuity continues with the fourth Joseph Pulitzer, my son, great-grandson of the founder, who joined the news staff in 1976.... He continues to sharpen his administrative skills as vice president of administration."

In private, however, the relationship between father and son remained cool. Months before his dad's death from cancer in May of 1993, a friend remembers telling Joe that it was time the two "kiss and make up.

"Joe scoffed at the idea," says the friend.

If the blow of not becoming editor or publisher of the paper was difficult for Joe, then his father's last will and testament must have been even harder to swallow. Pulitzer III left all his ownership in the company to Emily. Probate court records show she inherited more than 4 million shares in Pulitzer Publishing Co., which at the time included the Post-Dispatch and the Arizona Daily Star in Tucson, as well as seven television stations and one radio station. All told, the shares had a market value of $124 million.

What Joe got was some of the family artwork, including a bronze bust of his great-grandfather by Auguste Rodin (valued at the time at $50,000) and a portrait of his mother, Louise Pulitzer, by artist Rufino Tamayo (valued at $250,000). He also received his father's one-quarter interest in a vacation home in Maine that was jointly owned by several cousins, aunts and uncles. Joe later sold his interest in the house to pay for his Wyoming home. All told, Pulitzer III left his son a few hundred thousand dollars' worth of property -- from an estate valued at nearly $130 million.

"Everything went to Emmy," comments a friend. "It was sad."

While Emily became the largest single shareholder in the company following her husband's death, administrative power went to Michael Pulitzer, Pulitzer III's half-brother, who'd served as president and chief executive of the company since 1986. After his brother's death, Michael became chairman of the board.

Known more for being a businessman than a journalist, Michael quickly moved to undo many of his older brother's legacies, including the hiring of William Woo, who was often at odds with publisher Nicholas Penniman.

"Joe wasn't cold in his grave for long before Michael sacked Woo," recalls Eliot Porter.

The news was heralded by many in the newsroom, who viewed Woo as aloof and reluctant to go to bat for reporters on controversial stories. His vacancy led to a national search for an executive editor. By then, Joe wasn't even on the radar.

Following his father's death, Joe stayed at the paper for two years, but it was now evident to everyone that he'd never lead the company.

"He was given to feel like he had been sidelined, even though he had put in damn near twenty years in the company doing what he was told -- moving to Jefferson City and Washington, D.C., following the company orders, being the good soldier," says a friend.

In his private life, Joe sank into despair. Friends say he became a heavy drinker, often overindulging in his favorite elixir, Evan Williams bourbon, at dinner parties and social gatherings. His anger no longer in check, he became truculent and argumentative. His marriage to Jennifer began to crumble.

"By just being here I think he felt he was advertising himself as a loser," a friend ruefully recalls. "Here you have this name, Joseph Pulitzer, and it's an incredible burden living up to the traditions of that name. Whenever he met people they'd be impressed with the name and ask about his place in the company. It made him feel like shit."

Finally, in the spring of 1995, friends say Joe asked his uncle Michael for a face-saving way to leave the company. Though Pulitzer did not return phone calls requesting comment, his son, Michael Pulitzer Jr., parrots the official explanation given at the time of Joe's departure.

"Joe was happy at the paper and made a career decision to leave," maintains Michael Jr., who manages one of the family's former television stations in North Carolina. "One has a sense of respect and pride in the name Pulitzer, but one seeks happiness in one's own way, and the third generation of Pulitzers -- my father and Joe's father -- always encouraged us to pursue one's own interest."

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