In 1845, her husband purchased the New Yorker Staats-Zeitung, an influential and growing tri-weekly German-language newspaper owned and edited by Gustav Adolph Neumann.

She declined several offers for the Staats-Zeitung, and, by her own energy and sagacity and the co-operation of Oswald Ottendorfer, who became editor in 1858 and whom Anna married in 1859, made it one of the chief papers in the United States.

Ottendorfer devoted much attention to charitable enterprises, her main interests being the welfare of women and children and German culture.

In 1883, Ottendorfer received a gold medal from the Empress Augusta of Germany in recognition of her aid to flood victims in that country in 1882 and 1883.

The surviving children were Emma Schalk; Edward Uhl, who succeeded as business manager at the Staats-Zeitung; Mathilde von Riedl; and Anna Woerishoffer.