Transcript The First Newspapers in America

The First Newspapers
in America
…were it left to me to decide whether we should have
a government without newspapers or newspapers
without a government, I should not hesitate a moment
to prefer the latter.
Thomas Jefferson, 1787
America’s First Newspaper 1690
Publick Occurrences, Both
Foreign and Domestick, was the
first newspaper published in
America. It was printed by
Richard Pierce and edited by
Benjamin Harris in Boston on
September 25, 1690. It filled only
3 of 4 six by ten inch pages of a
folded sheet of paper. The
journalist stated in his first (and
only) issue that he would issue
the newspaper "once a month, or,
if any Glut of Occurrences
happen, oftener."
Fourteen Years Later…
The Boston News-Letter in 1704
One of the most
sensational stories
published when the
News-Letter was the only
newspaper in the
colonies was the the
account of how
Blackbeard the pirate
was killed in hand-tohand combat on the
deck of a sloop that had
engaged his ship in
battle.
Formatting of Colonial
Newspapers
Most were published weekly – and known as
weeklies
Paper Size was 10 X 15
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Most had four pages and measured about 10
X 15 inches.
A letter size sheet of paper today measures 8
½ X 11.
A legal sheet of paper today measures 8 1/2/
X 14.
A ledger sheet of paper today measures 11 X
17.
Printing of Colonial Papers
In 1769 colonial papers were printed on
presses imported from England. The type
was set by hand—meaning that each letter
was set by hand!
Colonial Printing Shops
Often the printer’s shop was also a
stationary shop, a post office, an advertising
agency, an office supply shop, a newsstand,
and a bookbindery. A printer might sell maps
and almanacs, and sealing wax! The press
printed broadsides, laws and proclamations,
tracts and record books.
The Colonists Wanted News
Quickly
Most stories were very brief and included
only the most significant information
What was INSIDE of the
Colonial Newspapers?
Newspapers
contained
essays, poems
and humorous
material. Ben
Franklin was
famous for
including his own
essays and
letters.
Sensationalism
News stories included those that would be
considered sensational or scandalous by
today’s standards. A report of a strange
creature being sighted or some unusual
event occurring attributed to the supernatural
or god-like powers might be included in the
news.
Readers Were Curious
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about happenings in other towns and
colonies
and about ordinary and everyday
occurrences
Typical “brief”
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Run away . . . a small yellow Negro wench
named Hannah, about 35 years of age, had
on when she went away a green plain
petticoat and sundry other clothes, but what
sort I do not know.—from a 1767 issue of
Williamsburg's Virginia Gazette
Typical “ad”
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For Sale—The spars, anchors, rigging, and
hull, of a brig, sixty four feet keel, twenty four
and a half feet beam, and ten feet hold.—
from a 1782 issue of the Virginia Gazette and
Weekly Advertiser
The Boston Gazette
10 X 15 size
3 columns
courier typeface
Small headlines
papers often
printed on old
wallpaper
Ben Franklin News of
1750
10 X 15 size
3 columns
very hard to read
duplication of art work
The 1736 Virginia
Gazette
10 X 15 size
2 columns
easier to read
Still used small
courier typeface
LIBEL and
Zenger
Perhaps the most famous
name in early American
journalism is that of Peter
Zenger. Publisher of the
New York Weekly Journal,
Zenger was accused and
tried for libel against the
colonial British government
in 1735. In this picture,
Zenger is arrested and his
printing press is burned by
Colonial authorities.
Zenger was found innocent and it was that one verdict that paved
the way for a free and independent press in America. For the first
time it was considered proper for the press to question and
criticize the government. This is a pillar of a free press in the
United States and any country that is free. Journalists have to be
able to question the actions of the government in order to make
them accountable.
In 1754, during the French and Indian War, Ben
Franklin published America's first newspaper
cartoon, a picture showing a snake cut into
sections, each part representing a colony, with
the caption: "Join or Die."
The Boston Gazette
1770 Boston Massacre
four pages
3 columns
broadsheet
no headlines
Massachusetts Centennial
1790
Newspapers PROSPERED
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Ben Franklin became a wealthy publisher and
editor
He linked print shops and post offices and
spread news papering up and down the east
coast
First to Inform
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Prior to the Revolution newspapers existed to
inform people of what was going on in the
rest of the world
The Revolution changed the focus to events
in the other colonies
Daily Publication
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Daily publication or “dailies” began in the 1780s
There were about 100 newspapers by 1790
Some were great annoyances to men in high
positions
It was a time of enormous press freedom
Many newspapers in the 1790s were intended to
accept a particular political party: the National
Gazette for the Hamiltonian Federalists; the Gazette
of the United States for the Jeffersonian
Republicans.
The Right to a FREE Press
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Many of the founding fathers were
enthusiastic about a free press.
Thomas Jefferson wrote in 1787 that
"were it left to me to decide whether we
should have a government without
newspapers or newspapers without a
government, I should not hesitate a
moment to prefer the latter."
Samuel Adams said in 1768 that "there
is nothing so fretting and vexatious,
nothing so justly terrible to tyrants . . .
as a free press."
All that is needed for newspapers to
become a mass medium is a good idea.
Along comes Benjamin Day in 1833. Day
opened the New York Sun and created
the Penny Press.
Newspapers of the day cost about 10 cents each . . . too expensive for
the masses. But there was a large literate audience out there. Day took
advantage of the fact that he could print thousands of papers
inexpensively and sold the papers for a penny each.
The Civil War era brought some “new”
technology to the publishing industry.
Photography became a popular addition to
newspapers. Matthew Brady set up a camera on
the battlefields and photographed the soldiers at
war. One of his photographs appears above.
An invention
that helped
speed news
along was the
telegraph.
Reporters were
able to send
encoded news
back to their
papers as it was
happening.
To alleviate the
situation of
getting cut off in
mid code,
reporters
developed the
“inverted
pyramid” form
of writing,
putting the most
important facts
at the beginning
of the story.
In the mid-1890s, Pulitzer (in the New York World)
and Hearst (in the San Francisco Examiner and lat
the New York Morning Journal) transformed
newspapers with sensational and scandalous new
coverage, the use of drawings and the inclusion o
more features such as comic strips.
After Pulitzer
began publishing
color comic
sections that
included a strip
entitled "The
Yellow Kid" (left)
in early 1896, this
type of paper was
labeled "yellow
journalism."
Yellow Kid
cartoonist Richard
Outcault
She got a job on the
Pittsburgh Dispatch when she
wrote a furious letter
complaining about an editorial
that claimed that women were
good for little but housework.
She covered social questions
such as divorce, slum life, and
conditions in Mexico for the
paper.
In 1887 she moved to Joseph
Pulitzer's New York World, for
which she exposed the
conditions in which the
insane lived by pretending to
be mad and getting herself
committed to the asylum on
Blackwell's Island. She also
investigated sweat-shop
tenements by the same
methods.
In 1895, Hearst purchased the New York
Morning Journal and entered into a head-tohead circulation war with his former mentor,
Joseph Pulitzer, owner of the New York
World.
You should have taken notes
on this information.
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This week we will watch a movie about the
60s so you will understand important court
cases that changed the way students can
report on news for a school newspaper.
Resources
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Colonial Newspaper Resources
http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/revolution/index.h
tml
http://www.pbs.org/ktca/liberty/
The New England Inquirer
Colonial Times
Boston Society Review
The Colonial Times Record
The Grand Old Times
New England Chronicle
Newport News
Boston Gazette
Richmond Herald Tribune