Early years In 1878, Pulitzer purchased the bankrupt
St. Louis Dispatch at a public auction and merged it with the
St. Louis Evening Post to create the
St. Louis Post and Dispatch, whose title was soon shortened to its current form. He appointed John A. Cockerill as the managing editor. Its first edition, 4,020 copies of four pages each, appeared on December 12, 1878. In 1882,
James Overton Broadhead ran for Congress against John Glover. The
St. Louis Post-Dispatch, at Cockerill's direction, ran a number of articles questioning Broadhead's role in a lawsuit between a gaslight company and the city; Broadhead never responded to the charges. Broadhead's friend and law partner,
Alonzo W. Slayback, publicly defended Broadhead, asserting that the
Post-Dispatch was nothing more than a "blackmailing sheet". The next day, October 13, 1882, Cockerill re-ran an offensive "card" by John Glover that the paper had published the prior year (November 11, 1881). Incensed, Slayback barged into Cockerill's offices at the paper demanding an apology. Cockerill shot and killed Slayback; he claimed self-defense, and a pistol was allegedly found on Slayback's body. A grand jury refused to indict Cockerill for murder, but the economic consequences for the paper were severe. In May 1883, Pulitzer sent Cockerill to New York to manage the
New York World for him. The
Post-Dispatch was one of the first daily newspapers to print a
comics section in color, on the back page of the features section, styled the "Everyday Magazine."
20th century At one time, the
St. Louis Post-Dispatch had the second-largest
news bureau in Washington, D.C., of any newspaper in the
Midwestern United States. After Joseph Pulitzer's retirement, generations of Pulitzers guided the newspaper, ending when great-grandson Joseph Pulitzer IV left the company in 1995. The
Post-Dispatch was characterized by a
liberal editorial page and columnists, including
Marquis Childs. The editorial page was noted also for
political cartoons by
Daniel R. Fitzpatrick, who won the 1955 Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartoons, and
Bill Mauldin, who won the Pulitzer for editorial cartoons in 1959. On May 22, 1946, the
Post-Dispatch became the first newspaper in the world to publish the secret protocols for the 1939
Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. During the presidency of
Harry S. Truman, the paper was one of his most outspoken critics. It associated him with the
Pendergast machine in
Kansas City, and constantly attacked his
integrity. In 1950, the
Post-Dispatch sent a reporter, Dent McSkimming, to
Brazil to cover the
1950 FIFA World Cup. The reporter paid for his own travelling expenses and was the only U.S. reporter in all of Brazil covering the event. In 1959 the
St. Louis Globe-Democrat entered into a joint operating agreement with the
Post-Dispatch. The Post–Globe operation merged advertising, printing functions and shared profits. The
Post-Dispatch, distributed evenings, had a smaller circulation than the
Globe-Democrat, a morning daily. The
Globe-Democrat folded in 1983, leaving the
Post-Dispatch as the only daily newspaper in the region. In August 1973 a
Teamsters union local representing
Globe-Democrat and
Post-Dispatch staffers went on strike, halting production for six weeks.
21st century In September 2003, the
Post-Dispatch accepted submissions for a 63rd anniversary special of
Our Own Oddities, a lighthearted feature that ran from 1940 to 1991. The best submissions, including a duck-shaped cucumber and a woman born on
December 7, 1941, with the initials W.A.R., were illustrated by
Post-Dispatch artist Dan Martin and featured in the October 6, 2003, edition. On January 13, 2004, the
Post-Dispatch published a 125th-anniversary edition, which included some highlights of the paper's 125 years: • Coverage of
Charles Lindbergh, who flew across the Atlantic despite being denied financial or written support from the
Post-Dispatch. • A Pulitzer Prize-winning campaign to clean up
smoke pollution in St. Louis. In the late 1930s and early 1940s, the city had
the filthiest air in the United States. • Sports coverage, including nine
St. Louis Cardinals championships, an NBA title by the
St. Louis Hawks in 1958, and the 2000 Super Bowl victory of the
St. Louis Rams. • Coverage of the city's "cultural icons" including
Kate Chopin,
Tennessee Williams,
Chuck Berry, and
Miles Davis. On January 31, 2005, Michael Pulitzer announced the sale of Pulitzer, Inc. and all its assets, including the
Post-Dispatch and a small share of the St. Louis Cardinals, to
Lee Enterprises of
Davenport, Iowa, for $1.46 billion. He said no family members would serve on the board of the merged company. the
Post-Dispatch was the fifth-largest newspaper in the
midwestern United States and the 26th-largest newspaper in the U.S. On March 12, 2007, the paper eliminated 31 jobs, mostly in its circulation, classified phone rooms, production, purchasing, telephone operations and marketing departments. Several rounds of layoffs have followed. On March 23, 2009, the paper converted to a
compact style every day from the previous
broadsheet Sunday through Friday and
tabloid on Saturday. On May 4, 2012, the
Post-Dispatch named a new editor, Gilbert Bailon. In 2015, the paper was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for breaking news photography for its coverage of the
Ferguson Uprising in
Ferguson, Missouri. In September 2024, six newsroom employees were laid off. The following month the paper announced it will shutter its St. Louis press facility and outsource to a printer in Columbia, Missouri. In total, 72 employees will lose their jobs. In November 2025, the
Post-Dispatch moved to a six day printing schedule, eliminating its printed Monday edition. Later in December, billionaire investor
David Hoffmann became majority shareholder of Lee Enterprises. In a February 2026
St. Louis Business Journal event, majority stockholder
David Hoffmann announced intention to move company headquarters to
Davenport, Iowa, and remarked that the newspaper was "a little too left" in news reporting and editorials. Hoffmann purchased a majority share of Lee Enterprises after reportedly being unhappy with the
Post-Dispatch's coverage of how Hoffmann's controversial $100 million investment plan to revitalize
Augusta, Missouri, which included helicopter tours and a new golf course, collapsed and resulted in numerous lawsuits. In March 2026, the
Post-Dispatch started publishing AI-generated content under the direction of the new leadership.
Endorsements for U.S. president ==Circulation==