Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 14.djvu/554

NEWSPAPER. owing to presses capable of printing a large edition rapidly before breakfast within a radius of 200 miles, and during the last quarter of the nineteenth century the daily became dominant. It had for more than half a century held an unchallenged field in all cities of over 100,000 population. The changes just recited extended the newspaper radius of all cities of half a million or over, and dailies which had been important at a remove of 100 or 200 miles over a great centre, in towns from 50,000 to 100,000, while they suffered no loss in their value as local means of communication and business properties, lost their weight in the daily newspaper field as organs of political and social importance, now that circulation which had been measured by the 10,000 down to 1885 was measured by the 100,000. From 1840, when the power press, the railroad, and the telegraph made the modern daily newspaper possible, down to 1875, a circulation of 50,000 in New York City was remarkable, and nearly all newspapers were well satisfied with half of this. From 1875 to 1885 these figures doubled. From 1885 to 1900, with a few exceptions, a newspaper could not be considered in any city of over half a million as of importance unless its daily circulation turned 100,000, and in any cities still larger 150,000 to twice these figures was not unknown. The effect of this enormous growth was to change radically both the condition and character of newspapers seeking a large circulation. Where a regulation subscription had been the general source of support, newsstand and street sales became responsible for the great bulk of the edition. Newspapers began sharply to differentiate between the newspaper in each city which sought a large but unstable circulation and the newspaper which aimed at a smaller but secure and more select group of readers. Where one newspaper to the home had been the rule, it became more and more common for the house and office to take from two to five. During the last decade of the nineteenth century, in the struggle for circulation and a general competition, the usual price of the daily newspaper in a large citv, which was 4 and 5 cents down to 1880, and from 2 to 3 cents down to 1890, dropped to 1 cent for most of the newspapers having a large circulation, for all in Philadelphia, for all but three English morning newspapers in New York in the general field, while in Boston and Chicago 2 and 3 cents was still maintained. At the same time, a corresponding fall took place in the rate charged for the small ‘want’ advertisement, and for the special advertising of business firms, a larger and larger share of which was monopolized by ‘department stores.’

Boston was first in the field with Publick Occurrences (1690), a small quarto sheet, having one page blank. For containing “reflexions of a very high nature,” it was suppressed by the Governor of Massachusetts. Next came the Boston News-Letter (1704), first conducted by John Campbell, the postmaster. In 1719 it met a bitter rival in the Boston Gazette; but with its name changed to the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston News-Letter, it grew to be the chief organ of British rule in America down to the evacuation of Boston. In 1721 James Franklin began the New England Courant. It suspended in 1727; and two years later Benjamin Franklin, who had been apprenticed to his brother James,

established at Philadelphia the Pennsylvania Gazette, which he conducted as a weekly till 1765. The Pennsylvania Gazette was then merged in the North American. Numerous ventures at Boston led to the Boston Evening Post (1735), which was ably conducted as an independent journal down to 1775, when it expired. The new Boston Gazette (1755) became the voice of the people against England. To it John Adams contributed the Letters of Novanglus. The Massachusetts Spy (1770) was another brilliant paper on the Revolutionary side. On the day of the battle of Lexington, it was removed to Worcester, where, after one short suspension, it has continued till the present under the name of the Worcester Spy. In other colonies the newspaper had already appeared or was appearing. In 1725 the colonies had two newspapers, one in Boston and one in Philadelphia. At the outbreak of the Revolution the number had increased to 34. The years immediately following saw, amid many failures and successes, the establishment of two dailies: the Advertiser of Philadelphia (1784) and the Advertiser of New York ( 1785).

For America, as for the rest of the world, the period of immense expansion in journalism began about 1830, on the establishment of the great New York dailies. The Daily Sun (1833), the first penny paper in the United States, was among the pioneers. Reorganized by Charles A. Dana in 1868, it gained wide repute for concise news items and brilliant editorials. The Herald (1835), founded by James Gordon Bennett, has long been noted for its exclusive foreign news, often obtained at lavish expense. The Tribune (1841), for thirty years under the management of Horace Greeley, was distinguished for its vigorous editorials. It still remains one of the cleanest and most reliable among newspapers. The Times, founded in 1851 by Henry James Raymond, has always aimed at sane and conservative comment on contemporary questions. Among other New York dailies of high standing are the Evening Post (1801), an independent paper somewhat on the English type, and containing solid and trustworthy book reviews; the Commercial Advertiser (evening), which is most favorably known for its financial and literary comment; the Mail and Express (evening); and the Press, founded in the interests of the Republican Party. The latest phases of modern journalism are represented by the World and the Journal or American. Excellent dailies are also published in German, French, and Italian. New York has found indispensable a few dailies and numerous weeklies devoted to finance and each important branch of trade. Such are: the Financial News (daily); the Journal of Commerce (daily); Bradstreet's; the Iron Age, etc. Each department of knowledge and each profession also has its weekly. Of the many illustrated journals Harper's Weekly is the oldest. Among others are Collier's Weekly and Frank Leslie's Illustrated Paper. In 1875 the Graphic was the only illustrated daily. Now a daily without illustration is rare. American humor finds expression in Puck, Judge, and Life; criticism in the Nation, in many other weeklies, and in the Saturday or Sunday editions of the dailies. The Times publishes a Saturday supplement composed wholly of book reviews and literary comment. Among religious journals, which often include literary criticism, are the Observer (Presbyterian); the