Arthur Brisbane
Arthur Brisbane (December 12, 1864 – December 25, 1936) was a famous American newspaper editor and a real estate investor. He was born in Buffalo, New York, the son of Albert Brisbane, a well-known advocate of Fourierist utopian ideas. Arthur studied in the United States and Europe before starting his journalism career in 1882 in New York City, working for the Sun and then the New York World.
Brisbane rose to power when he joined William Randolph Hearst. He became editor of the New York Journal and developed a close working relationship with Hearst. His daily editorial column, Today, was extremely popular and helped shape American journalism with its direct, eye-catching style. He was known for the belief that a strong first sentence would grab readers and set the tone for the whole piece.
As part of Hearst’s growing empire, Brisbane also bought and reorganized several failing newspapers, then sold them to Hearst. He bought The Washington Times and the Milwaukee Evening Wisconsin in 1918 and sold both about a year and a half later. He later oversaw the Detroit Times on Hearst’s behalf. Brisbane’s journalism was sometimes controversial; for example, an editorial he wrote that called for the assassination of President McKinley drew heavy criticism, and Hearst pulled the piece after the first edition, though many still blamed Hearst’s papers for helping provoke the assassination.
In addition to his editing work, Brisbane published many editorials and became a leading figure in Hearst’s media empire. He edited the Chicago Herald and Examiner starting in 1918 and, in the 1920s, Hearst’s first tabloid, the New York Mirror. He was often described as the “virtual executive director” of the Hearst press empire. Artists and illustrators worked with Brisbane on his editorials, including Winsor McCay and Mel Cummin, who helped bring his opinions to a wide audience.
Brisbane also made a mark in real estate. With Hearst, he formed Hearst-Brisbane Properties and invested in New York City buildings and projects, including the Ziegfeld Theatre, the Warwick Hotel, and the Ritz Tower. He built a grand home in New Jersey near a lake and turned his Allaire estate into a major project. The Allaire property, part of the former Howell Iron Works area, became a large country estate with a horse farm, a camp for Boy Scouts, and later a site used by film studios. He supported preservation efforts there and planned to donate about 1,200 acres to the state of New Jersey for Allaire State Park, with the historic village kept for education and history.
Brisbane married Phoebe Cary, and they had six children. Their family home later became the Arthur Brisbane Child Treatment Center. His daughter Sarah married Tex McCrary, who would become a notable radio and TV personality. Brisbane died in Manhattan on December 25, 1936, at age 72, and was buried in Batavia, New York.
News leaders and fellow writers paid tribute to his life and work. Hearst called him the greatest journalist of his day, while others praised his keen mind and influence on American journalism. His legacy lives on in the many papers that carried his Daily Today column, in the real estate projects he helped develop, and in the preservation of his Allaire lands as part of New Jersey’s state and historic sites. His grandson, Arthur S. Brisbane, later became Public Editor of The New York Times in 2010.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 15:00 (CET).