A closer look
Long before modern influencers ruined your morning commute with manufactured stunts, 19th-century newspaper barons realized that sending sleep-deprived people around the globe was a goldmine for subscriptions. James Gordon Bennett's era of journalism effectively created the international circumnavigation race as a spectator sport. By drumming up intense newspaper-driven stunts in the 1890s, publishers turned the sheer logistical nightmare of missing trains and bribing steamship captains into pure clickbait. It was never about the nobility of exploration; it was about keeping readers hooked on daily dispatches of mild peril to move advertising copy.
