In 1887 , Matthew Arnold was credited with coining the term " New Journalism " , a term that went on to define an entire genre of newspaper history , particularly Lord Northcliffe 's turn-of-the-century press empire . However , at the time , the target of Arnold 's irritation was not Northcliffe , but the sensational journalism of Pall Mall Gazette editor , William Thomas Stead . He strongly disapproved of the muck-raking Stead , and declared that , under Stead , " the P.M.G. , whatever may be its merits , is fast ceasing to be literature . " W.T. Stead called his brand of journalism ' Government by Journalism ' How and when the term New Journalism began to refer to a genre is not clear . Tom Wolfe , a practitioner and principal advocate of the form , wrote in at least two articles in 1972 that he had no idea of where it began . Trying to shed light on the matter , literary critic Seymour Krim offered his explanation in 1973 . " I 'm certain that Pete Hamill first used the expression . In about April of 1965 he called me at '' Nugget '' Magazine , where I was editorial director , and told me he wanted to write an article about new New Journalism . It was to be about the exciting things being done in the old reporting genre by Talese , Wolfe and Jimmy Breslin . He never wrote the piece , so far as I know , but I began using the expression in conversation and writing . It was picked up and stuck . " But wherever and whenever the term arose , there is evidence of some literary experimentation in the early 1960s , as when Norman Mailer broke away from fiction to write '' Superman Comes to the Supermarket '' . A report of John F. Kennedy 's nomination that year , the piece established a precedent which Mailer would later build on in his 1968 convention coverage ( '' Miami and the Siege of Chicago '' ) and in other nonfiction as well
1968 convention
1968 Democratic National Convention
New Journalism