The Penny Press Revolution
The Six-Penny Press
By J.p. Lawrence (Next / Previous/ Menu)
A quick jaunt back in time. Newspapers prior to the 1830swere very different from what exists today (Schudson 4). Objectivity was not anissue. Papers cost six cents and weretypically four-page handouts printed by party flacks (14). The layout of these papers typically were:
Page one: ads.
Page two: editorials.
The rest of page two and three: the comings and goings ofships into the harbor, and the contents of their cargo.
Page four: more ads.
The Tech Front
In other words, early American newspapers rarely had news aswe think of the word today. It was the revolution of the penny papers that ledto modern journalism – the idea that one ought to report the goings-on ofeveryday life, in addition to news and commerce (22).
These penny papers sought large circulations, large numbersof advertisers. Their sources of income were not subscription fees or subsidiesfrom political parties, but from advertisers and the pennies given to newsboyson each corner (18).
They were fueled by several break-through technologies: First came the iron cylinder press, and then came the notion to power it by steam. The penny presses were on the forefront of new products. They bought the latest and fastest presses. They invested early in the telegraph.They benefited from improvements in railroads and in newsprint (32). (For much of the 18th century, there wasn’t enough paper to make newsprint, as newsprint was made from rags. It was not until the middle of the 19th century that ground wood pulp was used to make paper).
While the technological basis of the revolution (better presses, better paper) certainly contributed, much of these innovations occurred after the penny presses had already established themselves (31). The technologies sustained rather than birthed the revolution. In fact, Schudson notes it may be more accurate to say that the penny press introduced steam power to American journalism than to say that steam brought forth the penny press (33). The technology imprint is obvious, but not causal. Instead, a particular cultural shift was brought forth the penny press revolution.
Penny Press Democracy
The penny papers were born in an era of great egalitarianism. Their appeal was populist; their growth was prodigious. After two years of operation, The New York Sun, and then the Evening Transcript and the New York Herald had a circulation of 44,000. Before the penny papers, the combined circulation of all of New York’s eleven six-penny dailies had been only 26,500 (32).
The fact that they sold for a fraction of the price of their competitors helped. A six-penny paper weighed in at $1.20 in adjusted 2010dollars, while a penny paper could be had for the modern equivalent of $0.20. This opened up the market. No longer was reading the news a luxury. As Schudson notes, the penny papers transformed the newspaper from something to be borrowed or read at club or library to something that was brought home for consumption(46). In other words, newspapers became democratic – something that even the non-elite could own.
The Jacksonian age was an age of great egalitarianism, for shouting at the elites, for greater economic opportunity (44), and the market responded in turn. Even the content became more democratic. Journalism as a genre explored reports from the police, from the streets, from private households of all classes (22). Previously, decorum had dictated that literature handle the common aspects of everyday life in comic terms, as objects of satire, if they were to be handled at all (27), and the topics that were considered proper to cover aligned with the rich mercantile classes.
For example, the very act of covering a murder trial wasseen as “sensationalism” by the six-penny papers: “This accusation wassubstantiated less by the way penny papers treated the news (there were nosensational photographs, of course, no cartoons or drawings, no largeheadlines) than by the fact that the penny papers would print “news” – as weunderstand it – at all (23).”
In other words, the penny papers carved a new ordering ofwhat was acceptable to talk about. The world of the middle class and lowerbecame something worthy of speech. This new kind of journalism ushered in a newshared social universe in which what was to be public and what was to beprivate would be redefined (30).
This shift in what was acceptable to see in print is one ofthe fruits of the penny press revolution, as the printing press allowed thenewspaper to become accessible to both the elites and the middle and lowerclasses.
The reaction against this revolution was subtle butreverberates to this day.
Works cited:
Schudson, Michael. Discovering the News: A Social History ofAmerican Newspapers. New York: Basic, 1978. Print.
