J.P. orchestrated Nelly Bly's round-the-world voyage as a circulation-booster.

Pulitzer's innovative use of graphic elements was one strategy that helped him garner more readers and advertising. However, he also drew people in by emphasizing coverage of new types of stories. Some of the changes gave human interest stories, gossip and even scandal prominent coverage simply because they fascinated readers. Pulitzer always stated that a paper could entertain readers and draw them in through its front page. The fourth page, which contained editorials, would educate.

He sought to make his journal appeal to the lowest common denominator, readers who did not consider themselves upper class literati. Immigrants, workingmen, and women were among the groups that often suffered from little or no education at the time; these were the groups Joseph Pulitzer sought out.

These groups flocked to the World because the paper took the "frivolous" interests of the masses seriously. Pulitzer urged his editors to locate articles of like interest on the same page. During the 1890s, the World developed a page consisting exclusively of sports, and another of "women's news." The sports page recognized, for the first time, that readers had an insatiable interest in the subject and demanded quality coverage. The World's women's page covered topics such as fashion, the feminist movement and morality (ostensibly only a women's issue at the time). ¹⁵ 

The World did not strive for radicalism in its portrayal of the feminist movement. The paper publicized news about the movement, but declined to advocate specific goals like suffrage and equal education. By including short fiction in the Sunday edition, the World encouraged its women patrons to expand their reading. ¹⁶  However, the advice columns seldom recommended that a woman complete her schooling and seek to enter the professions. Pulitzer knew that his readers did not belong to the middle class, the chief proponent of the women's movement at the time. Many of the World's women readers were immigrants who had to work to support the family but had traditional ideas about their role in the home. His newspaper managed to treat this sensitive issue with care.

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