1900s

1902 – Financial World magazine starts. It will last until the 1990s.

1902 – Clarence Barron, owner of the Boston News Bureau and the Financial Journal in Philadelphia, buys The Wall Street Journal.

October 1902 – McClure’s begins publishing Lincoln Steffens’ “Shame of the Cities” series. It uncovers corruption between businesses and government.

November 1902 – Ida Tarbell’s series of stories on the Standard Oil Co. begins in McClure’s magazine. It will last for 19 issues.

1903 – American Telephone and Telegraph Co. hires one of the first public relations agencies.

1905 – Appeal to Reason runs part of Upton Sinclair’s series on working conditions at meatpacking plants in Chicago.

1905 – Charles Edward Russell attacks the beef trust in articles in Everbody’s magazine.

November 1905 – Collier’s Magazine runs a scathing article showing how patent medicine companies had influenced what was being written about the industry in Massachusetts newspapers. The article changes public perception about the industry.

1906 – Doubleday Page publishes toned-down version of Sinclair’s The Jungle. By the end of the year, Congress passes the Pure Food and Drugs Act and the Meat Inspection Act.

1906 – John Spargo publishes “The bitter cry of children” about working conditions that boys face in coal mines.

1907 – The U.S. Chamber of Commerce starts Nation’s Business.