Herbert Bayard Swope (January 5, 1882 - June 20, 1958) was a U.S. editor and journalist. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, he was the younger brother of businessman Gerard Swope.
Swope spent most of his career at the New York World newspaper.
He was the first recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Reporting in 1917 for a series of articles that year entitled "Inside the German Empire" [1] The articles formed the basis for a book released in 1917 entitled Inside The German Empire: In The Third Year Of The War, which he wrote with James W. Gerard.[2]
He is known for saying, "I can't give you a sure-fire formula for success, but I can give you a formula for failure: try to please everybody all the time." He is also credited with coining the phrase "Cold War".[3]
He was the first newspaperman to employ the "op-ed" concept of opinion pieces printed opposite the editorial page.
Although standard editorial pages have been printed by newspapers for many centuries, Swope established the first modern op-ed page in 1921. When he took over as editor in 1920, he realized that the page opposite the editorials, was "a catchall for book reviews, society boilerplate, and obituaries."[4] He wrote:
"It occurred to me that nothing is more interesting than opinion when opinion is interesting, so I devised a method of cleaning off the page opposite the editorial, which became the most important in America... and thereon I decided to print opinions, ignoring facts."[5]
He was a legendary poker player, at one point in his life winning over $470,000 in a game with an oil baron, steel magnate and entertainer.[6]
| Awards and achievements | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Henry Cabot Lodge |
Cover of Time Magazine 28 January 1924 |
Succeeded by Edward Eberle |
  | Press, Politics and Poker - Howard Bayard Swope - Poker Player :: Articles :: Press, Politics and Poker - Howard Bayard Swope |
| | Islamofascism Anyone? - The New York Times > Log In |
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