Page:History of American Journalism.djvu/230

196 The contents of the first issue of The Herald were in striking contrast not only to the previous work Bennett had done for newspapers, but also to the contributions he was soon to make to American journalism. Before he started The Herald he had contributed to the leading literary papers of the day; he had written heavy political editorials on men and matters of moment; he had lectured on political economy in the old chapel of the Dutch Reformed Church on the corner of Ann and Nassau Streets. Yet he made The Herald—to quote the language used at that time—"light and spicy."

His reasons for making The Herald what he did may possibly be found in the competition he had to meet at that time in New York. To sell his papers he had to bring out a publication that was different from those of his rivals already in the field. In 1835 New York had the following daily papers: The New York American, The Mercantile Advertiser and New York Advocate, The New York Daily Advertiser, The Morning Courier and Enquirer, The New York Journal of Commerce, The New York Commercial Advertiser, The Business Reporter and Merchants' and Mechanics' Advertiser, The New York Times, The Evening Post, The Evening Star, The New York Sun, The Man, The Jeffersonian, The New York Gazette and General Advertiser, and The New York Transcript. In addition to these fifteen daily papers there were eleven semi-weeklies and thirty-one weeklies in the city. New York, like Athens of old, has always been ready to hear the new thing—especially in newspapers.

No "sacred cows" browsed in Bennett's fields. He even attacked the church regardless of denomination. He wrote the first newspaper accounts of the annual meetings of the various religious organizations much to the annoyance of both pulpit and pew. He reported the proceedings of the police court with a freedom which even enlarged the time-honored freedom of the press. In relating scandal with full particulars that filled columns of his paper, he seemed to think the more he shocked