Penny press newspapers were cheap,
tabloidA tabloid is an industry term for a smaller newspaper format per spread; to a weekly or semi-weekly alternative newspaper that focuses on local-interest stories and entertainment, often distributed free of charge ; or to a newspaper that tends to sensationalize and emphasize or exaggerate or...
-style papers produced in the middle of the 19th century.
History
Most newspapers in the early nineteenth century cost 6 cents and were distributed through subscriptions. On July 24, 1830, the first penny press newspaper came to the market: Lynde M. Walter's Boston
TranscriptThe Boston Evening Transcript was a daily afternoon newspaper in Boston, Massachusetts published from July 24, 1830 to April 30, 1941.-Beginnings:...
. Unlike most later penny papers, Walter's
Transcript maintained what was considered good taste, featuring coverage of literature and the theater.
The penny press arrived in New York on January 1, 1833, when Horatio David Shepard teamed up with Horace Greeley and Francis W. Story and issued the Morning Post. Although both Greeley and Story went on to fame and fortune in the New York press world, the concept of bringing out a penny paper belonged exclusively to Shepard. He made a habit of taking daily walks through the teeming streets of the Bowery, where he observed merchants selling small items for a penny a piece. Other papers of the time were selling for six cents which allowed for a wider spread of people to read the Penny Press so they could afford it. He also took note of the fact that sales were brisk.
Later that year, publisher
Benjamin DayBenjamin Henry Day was a U.S. illustrator and printer. He published the original New York Sun, the first penny press newspaper. He sold the New York Sun to his brother-in-law for $40,000. Benday Dots are also named after him. In 1842, Day created the "Brother Jonathan," which went on to be the...
introduced
The Sun. The
Sun appealed to a wider audience, using a simpler, more direct style, vivid language, and
human interest storiesA human interest story is a feature story that discusses a person or persons in an interactive and/or emotional way. It presents people and their problems, concerns, or achievements in a way that brings about interest or sympathy in the reader or viewer....
.
James Gordon BennettJames Gordon Bennett was the founder, editor and publisher of the New York Herald and a major figure in the history of American newspapers....
's
New York HeraldThe New York Herald was a large distribution newspaper based in New York City that existed between May 6, 1835 and 1924.-History:The first issue of the paper was published by James Gordon Bennett, Sr. . During the American Civil War, it was a staunch supporter of the Democratic Party. Under...
added another dimension to penny press newspapers, now common in journalistic practice. Whereas newspapers had generally relied on documents as sources, Bennett introduced the practices of observation and interviewing to provide the stories with more vivid details.
Political factors
Political and demographic changes were also significant. Much of the success of the newspaper in the early United States owed itself to the attitude of the "founding fathers" toward the press. Many of them saw the
free pressFreedom of the press consists ofconstitutional or statutory protections pertaining to the media and published materials.With respect to governmental information, any government distinguishes which materials are public or protected from disclosure to the public based on classification of information...
as one of the most essential elements in maintaining the
libertyLiberty is a concept of political philosophy and identifies the condition in which an individual has the right to act according to his or her own will....
and
social equalitySocial equality is a social state of affairs in which all people within a specific society or isolated group have the same status in a certain respect. At the very least, social equality includes equal rights under the law, such as security, voting rights, freedom of speech and assembly, and the...
of citizens.
Thomas JeffersonThomas Jefferson was the third President of the United States , the principal author of the Declaration of Independence , and one of the most influential Founding Fathers for his promotion of the ideals of republicanism in the United States...
said he considered the free press as even more important than the government itself: "Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate any moment to prefer the latter." It was because of his attitude that
freedom of the pressFreedom of the press consists ofconstitutional or statutory protections pertaining to the media and published materials.With respect to governmental information, any government distinguishes which materials are public or protected from disclosure to the public based on classification of information...
gained mention in the
First AmendmentThe First Amendment to the United States Constitution is part of the Bill of Rights. The amendment prohibits the Congress from making laws "respecting an establishment of religion", prohibiting the free exercise of religion, infringing on the freedom of speech and infringing on the freedom of the...
to the
ConstitutionA constitution is a set of rules for government—often codified as a written document—that establishes principles of an autonomous political entity. In the case of countries, this term refers specifically to a national constitution defining the fundamental political principles, and establishing the...
, and though early politicians, including Jefferson, occasionally made attempts to rein in the press, newspapers flourished in the new nation.
However, the penny press was originally apolitical both in content and in attitude. As
Michael SchudsonMichael Schudson is an American academic sociologist working in the fields of journalism and its history, and public culture.He was brought up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He has an undergraduate degree from Swarthmore College, and a doctorate in sociology from Harvard University. From 1976 he was...
describes in
Discovering the News, the
Sun once replaced their congressional news section with this statement: "The proceedings of Congress thus far, would not interest our readers." The major social-political changes brought on by the development of the penny press were themselves helped by the penny press' focus on working-class people and their interests. Thus an apolitical attitude was, ironically, a political factor influencing the advancement of the penny press.
Demographic factors
Following the success of
The Sun,
James Gordon Bennett, Sr.James Gordon Bennett was the founder, editor and publisher of the New York Herald and a major figure in the history of American newspapers....
started the
New York Herald in 1835, and
Horace GreeleyHorace Greeley was an American editor of a leading newspaper, a founder of the Liberal Republican Party, a reformer, and a politician...
started the
New York TribuneThe New York Tribune was an American newspaper, first established by Horace Greeley in 1841, which was long considered one of the leading newspapers in the United States...
in 1841. Three daily penny papers in one city were possible because the recent urbanization in industrialized
New EnglandNew England is a region of the United States. It is located at the northeastern corner of the US, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean, Canada and the state of New York, consisting of the modern U.S...
had swollen the population of
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
and surrounding cities. By the 1830s, the general population had become both sufficiently localized and sufficiently literate that a penny newspaper could have a weekly circulation of 50,000. For comparison, the influential
SpectatorThe Spectator was a daily publication of 1711–12, founded by Joseph Addison and Richard Steele in England after they met at Charterhouse School. Eustace Budgell, a cousin of Addison's, also contributed. Each 'paper', or 'number', was approximately 2,500 words long, and the original run...
of a little over a century earlier had a maximum circulation per issue of about 4,000.