Pulitzer used his front page to lure his readers in

"Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst appealed to both the sensational tastes and the patriotic impulses of their audiences. Pulitzer used his front page to lure his readers in, but he used his editorial pages to teach them how to be American citizens." - The Elements of Journalism by Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel

During the last decade of the 1800s, Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst, both newspapers magnates, massively increased their papers circulation by appealing to peoples’ natural liking for scandal and sensationalism of unimportant stories. The period is labeled under “yellow journalism” because of the thick layer of lies, scare headlines, and nonsense that made its presence on the front page of both men’s papers.

However, despite the yellowness of the time, there were decent efforts being made to educate the public on their rights and responsibilities as free citizens. Pulitzer knew if he did not conform to the spirit of the time he would lose a great deal of money, so he filled the front page of his newspaper with content that would not be considered as journalism, but open his paper and go through it, hidden inside were meaningful articles in the form of editorials that made up for his misbehavior on the front-page.

Hearst simply peddled pseudo-science and fake interviews, probably one of the many reasons why he does not have distinguished journalism prize named after him.