Under the shadow of notorious newspaper titans Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst lurks the astonishing story of their reporters in the field. Harry Scovel, Stephen Crane, Cora Taylor, Richard Harding Davis, and James Creelman, among others, risked their lives to "get the story" in Cuba during its struggle for independence, some of them even becoming spies duuring the Spanish-American War.

A tale of astounding escapades, unpredictable characters, wit, humor, and tragedy, The Yellow Kids shows that it was often editors and publishers in New York who added the "yellow" to journalism.