Pulitzer used another strategy to attract readers in addition to introducing new sections that dealt with women and sports. He knew that no newspaper was worth its salt unless it got patrons to care about serious issues. After reading a lengthy World article detailing fraud in the Equitable insurance company, Pulitzer advised head editor Don Seitz that the paper should be also fun to read: ¹⁷ 

Pulitzer probably found the March 15, 1909 editorial page to his liking. The lead editorial at the top left of the page did focus on the tariff, but the article underneath carried a trivial piece with the headline, "THE NORMAL WAIST." After announcing that men did not have to worry about their belt line, but a woman's waist offers "an intimate question in aesthetics," the World editors used fanciful phrases to ponder aloud when obesity is considered obscene.

After a rousing performance of verbal gymnastics, the editors ended the article with no real conclusion, saying: "Perhaps, after all, the normal waist is one concerning which Nature proposes and Fashion has no audacity to dispose." ¹⁹  The next article described the murder in Italy of a New York detective who had investigated the mob. By 1909, the editors of the World had mastered the art of guiding the reader's eye through a page in order to educate and entertain.

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