With $300 that he saved as a salesman, he bought the printing plates to Father Burke's Lectures.

He later formed his own publishing company printing books for the Roman Catholic market.

It was advertised as a magazine of "fiction, fact, sensation, wit, humor, news".

By 1892, Collier's Once a Week had a circulation of over 250,000, and was one of the largest selling magazines in the United States.

When Norman Hapgood joined Harper's Weekly in 1912, Robert Collier became the new editor.

The inaugural prize was awarded to The Oregonian for Polluted by Money, a four-part series investigating campaign contributions.