The story begins with Psmith accompanying his fellow Cambridge student Mike to New York on a cricketing tour. Through high spirits and force of personality, Psmith takes charge of a minor periodical, and becomes imbroiled in a scandal involving slum landlords, boxers and gangsters - the story displays a strong social conscience, rare in Wodehouse's generally light-harted works.

Psmith, Journalist was first released in the U.K. as a serial in the magazine The Captain in 1909. It was then published, in substantially rewritten form, under the title The Prince and Betty by W.J.Watt and Co., New York on February 14, 1912. The original text of Psmith, Journalist was finally published in book form in the UK on September 29, 1915, by Adam & Charles Black, London.