Extra!
Extra! Read All About It!
My grandfather worked as
a typesetter for a Dallas newspaper for many years. Because of my interest in
writing and taking journalism in high school and college, we shared time
talking about newspapers and how they were published. One of his first jobs as
a young boy was delivering newspapers in Victoria, Texas where his father was a
doctor. In writing a novel loosely based on his life, I did research about
newspapers which I found to be interesting.
Even though daily newspapers are
dwindling today, they were once the main source of news for those who were
literate and could afford the price. Printing in colonial America was expensive
with small circulations. No editor could afford to put more than one or two
issues a week. Because of the expense of printing and distributing the paper,
many of the common folks in town were excluded. Even though Americans tended to
be literate, they simply didn’t have the money to buy newspapers. Thus, the
circulation remained small.
One of the early "newspaper" sheets circa 1690.
In spite of the expense, early
newspapers had a profound influence on the early years of our federal
government. Articles, essays, and editorials were in abundance and the organs
for political faction. Many politicians became connected to specific
newspapers.
Noah Webster, before publishing the
first American dictionary, started the first daily newspaper in 1783 in New
York City named the American Minerva.
Essentially, it was an organ of the Federalist Party. Although in operation for
only a few years, it influenced and inspired the establishment of later
newspapers.
Eight years later, Alexander Hamilton
founded the Post, and it also had
some political affiliation. At the time, the newspaper became the means for
politicians to communicate with their constituents. The papers carried accounts
of newsworthy events as well as letters from the people who voiced their opinions
concerning political matters.
John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, and
Andrew Jackson all had political campaigns which played out on the pages of
newspapers. This type of political action continued well into the 1820’s.
As newspapers began a transformation
in the 1830’s, they turned to publishing news of current events, local
happenings, and non-partisan editorials and essays. The price also went down
which allowed for the working class and even new immigrants to buy them. Now
everyone could afford the paper and reading the news every morning became a
routine in many households across the country.
Some of the great names in the
industry as it grew included Horace Greeley of the New York Tribune and James Gordon Bennett, pictured above, of the New York Herald. They both possessed
strong personalities and controversial opinions as expressed in their
respective newspapers.
Another editor, William Cullen
Bryant, edited the New York Evening Post
even though people knew him better as a poet. The New York Times began publishing in 1851 with Henry J. Raymond
at the helm. Raymond worked under Greeley, and the newspaper was considered an
upstart without any strong political connection.
Newspaper Press Circa 1865
As the nation grew, underwent wars,
and invented new technologies, the newspapers grew as well. With the invention
of the linotype by Ottmar Mergenthaler, the papers could publish larger
editions with more pages and more news of interest to more people such as news
about sporting events.
In the late 1880s Joseph Pulitzer, a successful publisher from
St. Louis, bought a paper in New York City. Pulitzer transformed the business
of print news by focusing on events that would appeal to common people. He
focused on crime stories and other sensational subjects in New York World. The
vivid headlines, produced by a staff of specialized editors, pulled in readers.
Pulitzer met with
great success in New York, but in the mid 1890’s, a competitor came into the
picture. William Randolph Hearst, already the publisher of a San Francisco
newspaper, moved to New York City and purchased the New York Journal.
From the competition
between the two men came a circulation war, the likes of which had not been
seen before. There had been competitive publishers before, of course, but
nothing like this. The sensationalism of the competition became known as Yellow
Journalism.
In the 19th and early to
late 20th Century, our nation witnessed a rise in newspaper
circulation. Newspapers were delivered to the home, sold at newsstands or hawked
by newsboys on city streets.
Now, in the 21st century, we see its
decline. People now depend on electronic media to give them up-to-date news
about events around the world. With the news flashes available on cell phones
and computers, even the news on TV may seem old.
Most Americans today are in a rush
for everything, and getting the news as soon as it happens is more appealing
than reading through various sections in a daily newspaper. With rising costs
and smaller editions, the newspapers of today are becoming less and less a
necessity of our daily lives.
How much of a part does a newspaper play in your daily life? Do you prefer a printed version or electronic?
It's getting to be rodeo time here in Houston, and my newest release features a barrel-racing heroine.
Kylee is the
youngest of the Danner clan and drops out of college to barrel race full-time
and spend more time with her rodeo sweetheart, Jesse Martin. Connor Morris,
known as Jesse Martin on the rodeo circuit, is in love with Kylee, but he is
keeping his true identity from her for now. When her brothers discover Jesse
Martin is an ex-con on parole, they jump in and decide Kylee must break off the
relationship. Kylee can’t believe Jesse is what they say, but when he doesn’t
show up at the rodeo where they’re both competing, she grows suspicious. When
the truth of his identity as Connor Morris is revealed in a news item on
television, it is even more shocking to Kylee. His retired movie queen mother
has had a heart attack and is at a hospital in Denver. He is shown there with a
woman claiming to be his fiancée, and she calls him Connor Morris, son of Hal
Morris, who was running for U.S. Senator from Colorado. Jesse must now not only
gain back Kylee’s love and trust, he must also convince her father and brothers
that he loves Kylee and the TV story was a big mix-up.
Martha Rogers is a multi-published author and writes a weekly
devotional for ACFW. Martha and her husband Rex live in Houston, Texas where they are active
members of First Baptist Church. They are the parents of three sons and
grandparents to eleven grandchildren and great-grandparents to four, soon to be
five. Martha is a retired teacher with twenty-eight years teaching Home
Economics and English at the secondary level and eight years at the college
level supervising student teachers and teaching freshman English. She is the Director of the Texas Christian Writers
Conference held in Houston in August each year, a member of ACFW, ACFW WOTS
chapter in Houston, and a member of the writers’ group, Inspirational Writers
Alive.
The Perfect Bride
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():format(webp)/James-Gordon-Bennett-2000gty-56a488be3df78cf77282dd40.jpg)
