The New York Press came up with the term `` yellow kid journalism '' in early 1897 after a then-popular comic strip to talk about the newspapers of Pulitzer and Hearst , which both published versions of it during a circulation war . The New York Press coined the term `` yellow kid journalism '' in early 1897 after a then-popular comic strip to describe the down market papers of Pulitzer and Hearst , which both published versions of it during a circulation war .