The Commercialization of News in the Nineteenth Century

Notes

Notes Introduction 1. New York Evening Post, November 1, 1801. 2. Allan Nevins, The Evening Post: A Century of Journalism (New York: Boni and Liveright, Publishers, 1922), pp. 9, 11-12, 17, 19,23-25, 35. 3. New York Evening Post, October 18, 1897. 4. David P. Forsyth, The Business Press in America, 1750-1865 (Philadelphia: Chilton Books). 5. Hazel Dicken-Garcia, Journalistic Standards in Nineteenth-Century America (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1989); Jeffrey B. Rutenbeck, "The Rise of Independent Newspapers in the 1870s: A Transformation in American Journalism" (Ph.D. diss., University of Washington, 1990). 6. This dramatic change certainly was not the only one to occur in the American newspaper during the nineteenth century. That period also saw the evolution of the press as a watchdog on government and the rise of journalism as an occupation. Some editors essentially democratized the newspaper by providing content of interest and importance to Americans across class lines-a sharp contrast to the relatively elitist nature of early nineteenthcentury newspapers. See Thomas C. Leonard, The Power of the Press: The Birth of American Political Reporting (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986). 7. In the antebellum era, only white males had the franchise. 8. Proprietors to Hack and Seaver, October 17, 1832; Green and Willis to Solomon Richmond, October 13, 1832; Samuel Breck to Green and Willis, November 6, 1832; all in "We the People and Old Colony Press Business Records," 1830-1836, American Antiquarian Society. 9. James L. Crouthamel, Bennett's New York Herald and the Rise of the Popular Press (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1989), pp. 18, 21. 10. Alfred McClung Lee, The Daily Newspaper in America: The Evolution of a Social Instrument (New York: Macmillan Co., 1937), p. 166. 11. Ibid., p. 167. 12. Ibid., p. 166. 13. William E. Ames, A History of the National Intelligencer (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1972); Culver H. Smith, The Press, Politics and Patronage (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1977); Carolyn Stewart Dyer, "Political Patronage of the Wisconsin Press, 1849-1861: New Perspectives on the Economics of Patronage," Journalism Monographs 109 (Febru159 160 Notes to Pages 6-7 ary 1989); Milton W. Hamilton, The Country Printer: New York State, 1785-1830 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1936). 14. In an 1889 journalism primer, The Ladder of Journalism: How to Climb It (New York: Allan Forman, 1889), p. 7, T. Campbell-Copeland identifies three types of newspapers: metropolitan dailies, local dailies, and local weeklies. 15. Nevins, The Evening Post, pp. 207-41. 16. Commercial, literary, temperance, and religious newspapers all flourished in the antebellum era. See James L. Crouthamel, James V\atson Vkbb: A Biography (Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, 1969); Ray Billington, Protestant Crusade (Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1964); William Rorabaugh, The Alcoholic Republic (New York: Oxford University Press, 1979); Forsyth, The Business Press in America. 17. Gerald J. Baldasty, "The Political Press in the Second American Party System: The 1832 Election" (Ph.D. diss., University of Washington, 1978), pp. 140-70. 18. Crouthamel, James Wltson Webb, pp. 20-47. 19. It can be argued that it is the most commercialized because of Hearst's penchant for sensationalism to attract readers, marketing of the news, and self-promotion of the Journal (banner headlines would remind readers that the Journal got the news FIRST, through creativity and hustle). 20. Quoted in the Newspaper Maker (April 4, 1898), p. 5. The editorial noted that such partisanship would repel readers, meaning that partisan papers were "apt to have a short life." 21. The newspapers examined for content were issued in 1831 and 1832; the variation in dates examined is due to varying availability of the newspapers . The metropolitan newspapers examined were: New York Courier and Enquirer, January 17-22, 1831 Boston Morning Post, January 16-21, 1832 Charleston Mercury, January 16-21, 1832 Charleston Courier, March 5-10, 1832 Boston Daily Advertiser, May 10-15, 1831 The small-cityllarge-town newspapers examined were: Albany Argus (New York), January 9-14, 1832 Rutherfordton North Carolina Spectator, January 7, 14, 21, 28, 1832 The small-town newspapers examined were: Greenville Mountaineer (North Carolina), January 7, 14, 21, 28, 1832 Haverhill, Massachusetts, Essex Gazette, January 7, 14, 21, 28, 1832 22. Most of the newspapers examined for content were issued during the third week of October 1897. Variations from that date are due to the varying availability of newspapers in original form or in microform. The metropolitan newspapers examined were: Boston Daily Advertiser, October 18-23, 1897...