Greater Media Newspapers history

Founded in 1827, Freedom’s Journal was the first black newspaper in the United States.

The first Native American newspaper, the Cherokee Phoenix, began publication in 1828.

All that changed in September 1833 when Benjamin Day created The Sun.

Another early successful penny paper was James Gordon Bennett’s New York Morning Herald, which was first published in 1835.

The significant expense of this service led to the formation of the Associated Press (AP) in 1846 as a cooperative arrangement of five major New York papers: the New York Sun, the Journal of Commerce, the Courier and Enquirer, the New York Herald, and the Express.

In 1850 the Tribune’s editor hired another woman, Jane Swisshelm as his Washington correspondent2.

By 1861 sales of the Daily Telegraph had risen to a daily average of 130,000, double that of The Times.

Using short sentences, short paragraphs, and short articles, the new style of editing was aimed at attracting a large following among those who had learned to read as a result of the 1870 Education Act that made school compulsory for all British children.

Another early chain-builder was Edward Scripps, who began purchasing newspapers in 1878.

Ottmar Mergenthaler’s introduction of the Linotype machine in 1886—first in the United States, then in Britain and other industrialized countries—allowed existing newspapers to increase substantially their production and circulation.

As his first effort he launched a cheap weekly magazine in 1888, when he was only age 23.

By 1890, some papers boasted circulations in excess of one million copies.

In 1894 Harmsworth bought the Evening News, and by combining his editing style with some of the methods of American yellow journalism, he quadrupled its circulation within a year.

By the time he came to New York City in 1895, however, Hearst was interested in circulation-building sensation at any price, even if it meant dressing up complete fabrications as news.

Figure 4.7 R. F. Outcault’s the Yellow Kid, first published in William Randolf Hearst’s New York Journal in 1896.

National Newspaper Directory and Gazetteer, 1899, Pettingill & Co., Boston and New York.

Rowell's Directory calculated that there were more than 20,000 different newspapers published in the United States (including dailies, weeklies, monthlies, and quarterlies) in 1900.

Tagg gracefully submits to an interview," drawing by Charles Dana Gibson, 1903, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.

Meanwhile, the equally successful tabloid Daily Sketch had been begun in Manchester in 1909 by Sir Edward Hulton.

In 1912, a year after his death and 10 years after Pulitzer had begun his educational campaign, classes opened at the Columbia University School of Journalism.

Lord Northcliffe sold the Mirror to his brother Lord Rothermere in 1913.

Additionally, in 1917, the first Pulitzer Prize was awarded for excellence in journalism.

By 1922, Hearst, a ruthless publisher, had created the country’s largest media-holding company.

In 1931 the New York Morning, Evening, and Sunday World titles were bought by the Scripps-Howard chain; the morning and Sunday editions were dropped, and the Evening World was merged with the New York Evening Telegram, an action that suited Americans’ preference for afternoon papers at that time.

Many of the new readers were stolen from other papers—the Daily Mirror saw its figure drop from more than one million to 700,000 by 1934—but newspapers in general acquired 1.5 million new readers, so that by the end of the decade there was a national newspaper aimed at every socioeconomic class.

Hearst’s life partially inspired the 1941 classic film Citizen Kane.

But direct input had to await the development of sophisticated computers and computer programs, which did not materialize until after World War II. In 1946 the first techniques of photocomposition were developed.

In 1982 the Gannett Co., Inc. used emerging technology to launch a full-color national daily general-interest newspaper, USA Today, in the United States.

Great Women of the Press (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1983), 21-36, 62-73, 85-94.

In the United Kingdom, a short-lived newspaper akin to USA Today was launched in 1986 by publisher Eddie Shah.

Fang, Irving E. A History of Mass Communication: Six Information Revolutions (Boston: Focal PressUSA, 1997), 103.

Before the end of the 20th century, USA Today and The Wall Street Journal were joined by a third national newspaper, The New York Times, which expanded its reach in 1998 by offering subscriptions in most United States cities.

Her madhouse performance inaugurated the performative tactic that would become her trademark reporting style (Lutes, 2002).” Such articles brought Bly much notoriety and fame, and she became known as the first stunt journalist.

David R. Spencer, The Yellow Journalism: The Press and America's Emergence as a World Power (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 2007).

And VandeHei knows how quickly the wheels can come off a local operation: Politico’s owner, Robert Allbritton, attempted to build on its early digital success by launching a local-news follow-up, covering the Washington area under the title TBD, which folded after less than a year in 2011.

Axios, founded by alumni of Politico, got off to a fast start in 2017 by focusing on national politics and policy.