1. A Press for the Masses New York Sun New York Tribune New York Herald
Part I
New York Sun
New York Tribune
New York Herald
New York Times
Chapter 4

2. Today’s Story
Benjamin Day introduced a very different newspaper in 1833, which introduced mass communications to America. We look at why this press began when it did.

3. Chapter 4 Intro…
On September 3, 1833, when the New York Sun first appeared on the streets, a line was crossed in media history, a line that sharply divided the past from the present.
The Sun’s runaway success laid the foundation for three other great New York metropolitan dailies—James Gordon Bennett’s Herald, Horace Greeley’s Tribune, and Henry Raymond’s Times.

4. Chapter 4 Intro…
These newspapers marked a far more radical change in media structure and influence than anything that had happened before.
Between 1833 and the end of the century, the newspaper was established as a capitalist institution, placed firmly in private hands, and freed of both government control and political parties.

5. Chapter 4 Intro…
It was no less politically-committed, but now the commitment came from private entrepreneurs who owed their power—and
…it was the kind of power the press had never enjoyed before—to unprecedented circulations and the force of their own personalities and those of the men and women who wrote for them.

6. A Press for the Masses Part I
THE PENNY PRESS AND REASONS FOR IT

7. A Press for the Masses In this chapter
Why the Penny Press began when it did.
The differences between the Penny Press from the Colonial, Revolutionary, and Party presses.
The contributions made by the men of the Penny Press.
Contributions of the Penny to American mass communication.

8. American Life in 1830s Advances in technology and transportation
Growth of cities
Rise of large working classes
Mass production of articles
Spirit of business enterprise
Rise of common man
Increases in school attendance

9. The Penny Press vs. Six-Cent Press
Cost: 1 cent vs. 6 cents
Editing: Personal vs. mass operation
Ads: Moral vs. economic incentives
Politics: Servant vs. master
Content: Views vs. news
Reporter: Printer vs. professional

10. The Penny Press: An Original Product
Nonpartisan
Covered local news
Broad definition of news
values
Focused on everyday life

11. Reasons for the Penny Press
Natural History Argument
Technology Argument
Literacy Argument
Democratization Argument

12. Technological Argument
Printing presses
Manual to steam
Flatbed to cylinder
Stereotyping process
Papermaking machines
Transportation advance

13. Jacksonian Democracy Faith in the common man
Belief in political equality
Belief in equal economic
opportunity
Hatred of monopoly
and special privilege

14. Jacksonian Democracy’s Impacts
Economics
Politics

15. Jacksonian Democracy’s Impact on Economics
Advertisements more available which enlarged potential market for goods
Transformed paper from something borrowed to home consumption

16. Jacksonian Democracy’s Impact on Politics
Party machinery replaced legislative caucuses
Formal organization supplanted informality and avocational character of old politics

17. Summary so far…
The Penny Press arose from the “democratization of the marketplace” stimulated by President Andrew Jackson’s new democracy—”faith in the common man,” “belief in political and economic opportunity” and “hatred of monopoly and special privilege.”

18. Next A Press for the Masses Part II
MEN OF THE PENNY PRESS

19. A Press for the Masses Part II
MEN OF THE PENNY PRESS
Horace Greeley, Benjamin Day, James Gordon Bennett, Henry Raymond

20. Today’s Story
Chapter 4 covers some of the most interesting, probably weird by some standards, men of the Penny Press and how they revolutionized American media.
Today’s story is an interesting one. It is a story about some interesting characters who changed American media and modernized the nation’s communications system.
I’ve included an introductory video for you.

21. Discussion Outline Men of the Penny Press Benjamin Day
James Gordon Bennett
Horace Greeley
Henry Raymond
In this unit, we will discuss the contributions of men of the Penny Press and contributions of the Penny Press.

22. Benjamin Day: Mission
To show that a general nonpartisan 1-cent paper could attract readers
In the bustling metropolis of New York, Benjamin Day issued his 1,000 new Suns on Sept. 3, A New Englander, Day had learned the printing trade on the Springfield Republican. Coming to New York in 1831 when he was 20, he opened a print shop, doing commercial job work. Alert for business, Day studied attempts made by others who tried to launch cheap papers. A workman himself, he sensed the reading needs of employees working in factories, behind counters and on the docks of New York. His mission was to show that a general nonpartisan one-cent paper could attract readers. The idea of a cheap newspaper was not new. In 1826 a number of editors were experimenting with gossip, sporting news, and a cheap press. Perhaps the penny paper’s greatest inspiration came from Charles Knights’s very successful 1832 Penny Magazine, whose aim was educating and improving England’s poor. Within a year it attained a circulation of more than 20,000. It even boasted of a large American audience.
New York Sun

23. Benjamin Day: Contributions
Circulation
Definition of News
Advertising
Benjamin Day’s contributions were in:
--Circulation
--News and
--Advertising.

24. Benjamin Day: Circulation
Started the Penny Press revolution
Imported the London Plan
In the area of circulation, Day imported the London Plan from England to the United States, It was an aggressive business spirit in selling papers. Until the Penny Press, newspapers were delivered to homes, and it was considered undignified to be aggressive about increasing the number of readers. Day sold directly to the man on the street with the shill cries of newsboys.

25. Benjamin Day: Definition of News
Showed readers could be attracted by language that was not stuffy or pretentious
Placed value on sensation and human interest
Sensationalism
Reliance on human interest stories
Day wanted to give readers news that was plain and clear and simple in writing. He placed emphasis on news than the established journals had done. His paper was a step ahead of the 6-cent papers which were almost entirely political and economic sheets. He published news under a column called “police office.” In addition, he hired George Wisner, the first police reporter in American journalism to write this news.
He discovered the human side of news—murder, catastrophe and love, blended with elements of pathos and humor. Light in tone and selling for a penny, the Sun amused and aroused the large urban masses. Crime dealt with weaknesses and errors that comprised human life, arousing pity, anger and sorrow, and affording various thrills. What matter if the people were drunkards, prostitutes, frauds or unemployed factory workers? They were human.
Thus, he relied on human interest stories. And the definition of sensationalism becomes “reliance on human interest stories.”

26. Benjamin Day: News Moon Tales: When the Moon saved the Sun –
New York 1835
The first serial printed by the Sun concerned the pioneer David Crockett. Another feature described the adventures of Daniel Boone.
Still another was the famous “moon hoax”—which underscored the gullibility of readers. Sun reporter Richard Adams Locke wrote a story in the Aug. 25, 1835 edition of the Sun. The next day the daily devoted four columns to describing the moon’s extraordinary vegetation and animal life which Locke reported a scientist had seen through his high powered telescope. Locke portrayed winged men and women living on the moon.
Other editors, Locke drank a bit too much one night at the local bar and talked a bit too much about how phony his story was. The Journal of Commerce was only too glad to print that it was a fake and embarrass Day and his writer.

27. Benjamin Day: Advertising
Instituted cash-in-advance policy for advertisers
Created help wanted advertisements
In the area of advertising, Day instituted a cash in advance-policy for advertisers. Before Day, advertisements were sold on an annual basis, along with subscriptions for $30 or $40. Day insisted on a cash policy, influenced probably by the success of the London papers. He encouraged small advertisers with “want ads” or merchandise to exchange. He instituted “Help Wanted” columns for factory workers. In this way, advertising reached out to appeal to the masses.
The Sun also instituted display type, capital letter headlines and tiny cuts or illustrations.

28. James Gordon Bennett: Mission
New York Herald
James Gordon Bennett, a cross-eyed Scotchman who had been mistreated by oldline publishers watched the Sun’s success carefully. Bennett trained for the Catholic priesthood, but with the independence which characterized his entire life, he turned his back on Catholicism and left home in Four years later he arrive din Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he tried to make a living by school teaching. Like the priesthood this didn’t pay well and he left. He then decided to become a journalist. Let’s face it, this guy it appeared was not into making money.
He worked on the Charleston Courier, where he learned the newspaper business. He then published the New York Courier, an early attempt at Sunday publication, but he found the times not ripe for a Sunday editor. He then was hired by the New York Enquirer as the first Washington correspondent. However, he wanted his own newspaper. He went to New York eventually and asked Benjamin Day for a job on the Sun. He was not hired.
At age 40, with $500 in his pocket, he rented an office at 220 Wall Street, rolled two barrels down the stairs. Then he connected the barrels with a long board to a make table for his new office. He promised with the first edition of the New York Herald to use the press to reform and revitalize America.
To use the press to reform and revitalize
America

29. James Gordon Bennett: Contributions
Introduced era of newspaper competition
Developed the concept of news
Developed advertising
His contributions were many.
--He introduced the era of newspaper competition.
--He developed the concept of news.
--He developed advertising.

30. James Gordon Bennett: Competition
Introduced era of newspaper competition
Published events promptly
Aggressively used every means of transportation to get the news
He introduced the era of news competition. He published events promptly. However, his greatest contribution is that he used every means possible to obtain the news. He used communication facilities more fully. He used ponies, pigeons, trains, steamboats. He was the first to grasp the significance of the telegraph, just as he recognized the value of trans-Altantic steamboats. When the Mexican War broke out, we established a pony express to get the news faster than by the U.S. mail.

31. James Gordon Bennett: Concept of News
Developed the concept of news
Concentrated on pages for sports, business, women, and theater
Bennett made gathering news in the New York metropolis an industry. He was not interested in helping or changing New York or its people. His paper, which merely reported the news, served primarily as a reflector of the metropolis.
He needed attention to sell his daily and he got it by attacking his opponents and their papers. He called them “blockhead” and “garbage of society.” He cried, “Get out of my way, you driviling editors.” He compared himself to Socrates, Luther, Moses, and he referred to himself as “The Napoleon of the Press.” He was a real sweetheart, don’t you think.
He exploited sex more than Day. If the Sun was sexy, the Herald was sensational. On page one he presented readers with spicy stories of seduction, crimes which never reached the courts. The most titillating was the story of Ellen Jewett,, the most sensational story the Penny Press had ever featured. The story broke April 11, 1836 under the headline: Most Atrocious Murder. He described how the murder killed Jewett, a prostitute, then set fire to her bed. Police identified Richard P. Robinson’s cloak found in the girl’s room and son arrested him at home. A wealthy New Yorker, Robinson denied everything.

32. James Gordon Bennett: Advertising
Developed advertising
Changed ads daily
He improved advertising methods. He followed Day’s policy of cash-in-advance except for yearly advertisers. He started an innovation with the announcement that advertising insertions could run for two weeks only. Later he refused to print for longer than one day ads without changes.
Display type, pictures, and two-column advertisements were included in the Herald thus breaking with tradition. When this policy brought complaints from small but regular advertisers, who claimed their announcement could not be seen, Bennett banned advertising display types and pictures, advertisement were printed then in agate type.

33. "Loathsome and leprous slanderer and libeller"
The Great Moral War of 1840
"Contaminate"
"Recless depravity"
"Loathsome and leprous slanderer and libeller"
Balanced against the extraordinary enterprise, which was making Bennett richer by the day, was the exhibitionism that distressed his friends and made him enemies than any other man in town. His enemies detest his exploitation of crime news and his delight in stories of illicit sexual relations. They also deplored his ability to make himself a subject of news as well as his ability to give his paper notoriety by attacking competing editors. Competing publishers didn’t understand how he could be a success. He published a paper filled with sauciness and he raised the price of his paper to two cents. They were jealous of his success. Let’s face it, five years after the Herald began, no fewer than six Wall Street journals were discontinued.
The hatred between Bennett and the other publisher brought about a year-long moral war. The editors ransacked the dictionary for every mean and offensive word or phrase to call Bennett…such as… a daring infidel, habitual liar, prince of darkness, turkey buzzard, rascal rogue, cheat and polluter of the press.
The climax of the moral war came on June 1, 1840 when he announced his approaching marriage on the front page of the Herald. Readers would subject daily to stories about their marriage and honeymoon.
He even battled the Catholic Church. The cardinal was pushing a measure for state funds to support parochial schools. He said the cardinals must be blinded to all facts, to all truths, save the dogmas and driveling of the Catholic Church in the last stage of decrepitude. He was ex-communicated from the Catholic Church.
""Turkey-buzzard"
"Daring infidel"

34. Bennett vs. Holy Allies Name Circulation Evening Star 2,200
Evening Signal THE HERALD
American Daily, Weekly & Extra
Courier & Enquirer , ,000
Journal of Commerce 3,100
Express ,800
Sun ,000
News
Mercury ,500
He made tremendous amount of money. Look at its circulation.
However, despite is financial success, it was not an influential newspaper. It was, in fact, the first large daily to demonstrate that even though a paper dominates its circulation field and apparently has a loyal readership, it does not follow necessarily that these readers will accept its policies.

35. The Mexican War of 1846
The Mexican War of 1846 provided exciting opportunity for Herald to show off it stuff in covering the news. This war also is an example of democracy’s more sordid failures. It began on May 11, 1846, when President James Polk sent a special message to Congress declaring that America had been invaded by Mexico, that American blood had been shed, and that war exists, and not withstanding all our efforts to avoid it, exists by the act of Mexico herself. Polk wanted Congress to declare war that was already under way. Sometimes it reminds one of America’s entry into Iraq. History has a way of repeating itself.
Whether the Mexicans had actually invaded was another question. They had crossed the Rio Grande, but whether that was the boundary with Texas, annexed five months before was a matter of dispute.
The truth is that Polk was under pressure from businessmen who suffered losses in Mexico as a result of the revolution. Although $8.5 million had been claimed, a commission had determined that only about a quarter of this amount was valid. The Mexican government had defaulted on payment after three installments. American corporations and states were at the time ready to default to the British for more than $200 million, but nothing was said about that.

36. The Mexican War of 1846 Showed the power the press didn’t have.
First war to be covered extensively by correspondents.
La Patra aids the American press and becomes the first Spanish-language daily in America.
This was the first war covered by correspondents. Bennett was aided by 2,000 mile communications network that included a courier system, pony express, and railroads. Included in his communications network were 130 miles of telegraph lines. This became the first war in which news was transmitted via the telegraph.
However, Bennett had a hard time getting into Mexican cities. Thus, many newspaper reprinted reports provided by La Patra of New Orleans. It became the first Spanish=Language daily in the United States.
It also showed the power the press didn’t have. Despite Greeley’s cry to avoid war, the administration did not listen.

37. Greeley’s Isms New York Tribune Graham Crackerism Fournierism
Socialism
Associationism
Many found Greeley strange. He became a propagandist for many isms of the period whose subjects found their way on to his editorial page. They included Graham Grackerism, Fournierism, Socialism and Associationism.
He was a follower of Sylvester Graham, a dietary reformer, who suggested the Graham Cracker He even went on a Graham Cracker diet of water and Graham Crackers and became ill.
Fournierism. Have you ever heard of the French philosopher Charles Fournier. He believed you could wipe out poverty if you took a plot of land and put poor people on it so they could grow vegetables and exchange products with one another. He bought some land and attempted to put the philosophy in operation. But why are some people poor. They are lazy. So utter chaos broke out and he closed it.
He dabbled in socialism for a decade but was branded a socialist when he hired Karl Marx to write a weekly column. However, it didn’t last long. Marx, the great anti-capitalist asked Greeley for more money.
Finally, he was an advocate of unionism. He organized the New York Printers’ Union and became its first president. He believed in trade agreements negotiated by employers and employees. And they should be morally binding.
New York Tribune
Horace Greeley

38. Greeley’s Isms New York Tribune Graham Crackerism Fournierism
Socialism
Associationism
For example Horace Greeley considered the Mexican War a moral outragee and wrote editorials against it and no one in Washington took heed, and he was America’s most influential editor.
Give description of Greeley.
A gawky New England country boy, Greeley walked down the streets of New York in August 1831 with $25 in his pocket and five years of experience eon country weeklies. He was looking for a job as a printer. Ten years later, he found the New York Tribune, a great social and communication of democracy.
Born on a farm near Amherst, New Hampshire, Greeley’s interest in learning was awakened by his mother, while he derived his sympathetic, kindly nature from his father. The elder Greeley could not make the farm pay, and finally declared himself bankrupt and fled to Vermont to escape creditors. The family settled in Westhaven, Vermont where Horace began school again. He was a quick scholar, and by the tmie he was 13 his teacher reported that Greeley knew more than the teacher himself. He, thus, left school and did his reading at home.
He eventually went to New York and worked on various weeklies. He was asked in 1840 to edit the Whig campaign weekly, the Log Cabin. On April 10, 1841 he launched the New York Tribune with aid of some Whig members.
New York Tribune
Horace Greeley

39. Horace Greeley: Mission
Advance moral, social, and the political well being of America
His mission was to advance the moral, social and the political well being of America.

40. Horace Greeley: Contributions
Re-establish the value of the editorial page
Developed a new concept of news

41. Horace Greeley: Editorial Page
Re-establish the value of the editorial page
Included all points of view
Against slavery
Against capital punishment
Appealed to the laboring class
Promoted Whig causes
Refused to be a slave to parties
Simply, he re-established the value of the editorial. He was the greatest editorial writer of his time. Many say there is no one today who could out write Greeley. His newspaper was second to the Bible throughout the West. It was called a power never before or since known in this country.

42. Horace Greeley: Concept of News
Developed a new concept of news
Published a cheap daily void of sensationalism
Believed readers moved by reason and not emotionalism
Covered the needs and problems of urban commercial and industrial workers
Helped solve the problems of the machine age
He also developed a new concept of news. He put together a talented editorial staff to further his goal to publish a newspaper that relied on rationalism, not sensationalism.
As a postscript. He was sent to Congress from New York for a three month term after promising not to run for re-election. He was hated immediately. He created a sensation when with his mileage expose in which he pointed out that congressmen were making out travel expense sheets on the basis of old railroad rates, taking the longest way to and from home and pocketing large sums of money.
He did run for re-election and won. He wanted to run for Governor but the party bosses, including Sen. Elect William Seward, would not hear of it. He got back at Seward who wanted to be president. At the convention Greeley went from one caucus to another and told them not to vote for Seward. Abraham Lincoln became the nominee.
In 1872, however, Democrats and a faction of Republicans put up newspaperman Horace Greeley for president. He lost and died some months later. It has been said if Horace Greeley didn’t exist, Charles Dickens, his almost exact contemporsry, would have had to invent him. You would never take him for a common man. In fact, he was the most celebrated and influential of his countrymen and arguably the most widely and fervently read in the land..

43. Henry Raymond
In 1851 conservative Henry J. Raymond, formerly a member of the New York Tribune staff, recognized the need for a new conservative Whig newspaper to sell for 1 cent.
Raymond, who has been described as a small, black-bearded fellow with a face once described as “no bigger than a snuff-box,” was in many respects like Greeley. But Raymond’s college training gave him more polish than Greeley. Raymond also was more of a conformists and a shrewder politician.
Born in Lima New York, he attended Wesleyan Seminary and then enrolled at the University of Vermont, where he studied so much he became ill. Greeley said of his editor: “Abler and stronger men I may have met, a clever, readier, more generally efficient journalist I never saw.”
Like Greeley he had a love of politics and ran on the same Republican ticket as Lincoln and was elected to Congress. He helped found the Republican party. He died at 49 following a stroke.

44. Henry Raymond: Mission
To publish a paper that was reasonable and decent
His mission of his New York Times was to publish a paper that was reasonable and decent.

45. Henry Raymond: Contributions
News presentation
His greatest contribution was in news presentation.

46. Henry Raymond: News Presentation
Published news was fair in tone
Promoted techniques of careful reporting
Demanded reasonable decency in reporting
His philosophy was to:
-- publish news that was fair in tone
--promote techniques of careful reporting
--demand reasonable decency in reporting
The Times was finally bought by Adolph Ochs, a publisher form Tennessee, who transformed the paper into what many consider the world’s greatest newspaper. It is still owned by the Ochs family. .

47. Influence of the Penny Press on Public
Developed the rise of the common man.
Brought about new ideas.
Stirred emotions about crime, sex, disaster.
Advocated city improvements.
Served as mass advertising media.
The Penny Press proved a concomitant of democracy. It developed with the rise of the common man. It was part of the social movements of the time. It stimulated new segments of the public to become interested in public affairs. They informed the workingman about politics. They stirred interest in reform of all kinds. It advocated city improvements. They served a useful purpose in industrial economy by providing a wide outlet for factory-made products.

48. Influence of the Penny Press on Journalism
Advanced the concept of news
Changed newsroom organization
Advanced newspaper technology
Changed newspaper distribution
Changed financing of newspapers
The Penny Press advanced the concept of news. It broadened the concept of news. It changed newsroom organizations, advanced newspaper technology, distribution and financing.

49. Conclusions
When people are left for long periods of time, what they want to read is gossip.
Penny press revolutionized the way new was financed, produced, distributed and consumed.
Andrew Jackson’s democratic market society contributed more than anything else to the birth of the penny press.

50. Next
Next…
Chapter 5: A Divided Nation, a Divided Media

51. the democratic market society
According to Michael Schudson, the emergence of the penny press was due to…
the democratic market society

52. Advertising became more of an economic than moral exchange
How did the Penny Press differ from the Colonial, Revolutionary, and Party presses?
Advertising became more of an economic than moral exchange

53. How was sensationalism defined during the Penny Press period?
Reliance on human interest stories

54. The famous poet who took over editorship of Alexander Hamilton’s New York Evening Post and became an important editorial writer:
William Cullen Bryant

55. He introduced the London Plan to America
Benjamin Day

56. His newspaper, The Tribune, came next to the Bible, showing the power of the press that some say has never before seen in America:
Horace Greeley

57. This penny press editor got Congress to finally open sessions to reporters
James Gordon Bennett

58. He wanted his New York Tribune to be based on reason not emotionalism, AND … . He is considered one of the greatest editorial writers in history:
Horace Greeley

59. He founded the New York Times and the Republican Party
Henry Raymond

60. This editor changed the face of journalism by his insistence on competition, and This penny press editor almost single handedly changed the course of journalism history, and he would have been the first to admit it, if charged:
James Gordon Bennett

61. This editor’s editorial page exemplified John Milton’s view that all people should be exposed to various ideas
Horace Greeley

62. This editor was the first to employ foreign correspondents, AND … Nearly everything in his newspaper was likely to offend someone…
James Gordon Bennett

63. His newspaper was called “a power never before or since known in this country …
Horace Greeley

64. This conflict marked the beginning of modern war correspondent.
The Mexican War