The American Press

The History of American Newspapers

In America more newspapers and magazines are published than in any other
country of the world. The first newspaper in the United States was “Publick
Occurrences Both Forreign and Domestick “. It was published in Boston, September
1690, but was suppressed by the colonial governor after the first issue.

The first continuously published American Newspaper was the Boston News-Letter ,
established in 1704 by John Campbell.

The Boston Gazette (1719) was printed by James Franklin, Benjamin Franklin's
brother. The independent newspaper publishing in the English colonies is considered
to have begun with James Franklin's New-England Courant (1721).

The first New York City newspaper was founded in 1725 and was soon followed by
several others including the New York Weekly Journal, edited by German American
printer John Zenger. When Zenger’s paper criticised the British colonial administration
, he was charged with libel. Zenger was found not guilty and his case created an
important precedent of a free press in America.

During the American Revolution (1775-1783), newspapers brought accounts/articles

of military developments to an increasing number of readers. Then the press freedom
in the United States was secured by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in
1791, which declared that “Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of
the press.” By 1800, 20 daily papers were in operation, and the number continued to
increased.

Until the 1830s newspapers were concerned almost completely with business and
political news.

Benjamin Henry Day changed all that in 1833, when he began publishing the New
York Sun as the first successful penny paper. The Sun expanded the definition of
news to include crime and violence, feature stories, and entertainment items.
Appealing to a mass audience and costing only 1 cent, the Sun’s kind of journalism ,
known as the penny press, remained dominant in the United States throughout the
rest of the 1800s.

The middle and later years of the 1800s are particularly noted for the work of a
number of outstanding publishers and editors. The most famous editor of the period
was Horace Greely, who crusaded for women's rights and against slavery, and who
founded the independent New York Tribune in 1841.
Two years later James Gordon Bennett started the New York Herald. He shaped
many of the directions of modern journalism, including comprehensive coverage and
an accent on entertainment.

Another independent paper, The New York Times, appeared 10 years later (1853). By
the mid-19th century, there were 400 dailies and 3,000 weekly papers in the United
States.

A different type of journalism, called “yellow journalism “ was developed by the

publishers Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst , who changed newspapers
with sensational and scandalous news coverage, the use of drawings, and the
inclusion of more features such as comic strips.

By 1900 most large cities in the United States had several papers and most smaller
cities had at least two newspapers. The number of dailies has decreased greatly in
recent years. The principal reasons appear to be loss of advertising income, labor
(work) difficulties and rising costs of equipment, labor, and material.

The tendency towards newspaper-chains ( one company owns a number of

newspapers) and the development of tabloid1 newspapers ( half size papers with
shortened versions of news and more illustrations) has increased.

Circulations in the low thousands were common for papers at the beginning of the
19th century. Rising circulations were made possible by technological advances in
mechanical typesetting, in high-speed printing (rotary press), in communication
(telegraph and telephone), and in transport (railway). Led by papers in Great Britain
and the United States, newspapers expanded their appeal and reduced prices.

The Times, for example, increased its circulation from 5,000 in 1815 (price seven
pence) to 50,000 by the mid-19th century (five pence). The first American tabloid was
the New York Daily News (1919), started by Joseph Medill Patterson and devoted to
sex and sensationalism. In the early 20th century, the number of American papers
reached a peak (more than 2,000 dailies and 14,000 weeklies). During the 1920s
and '30s competition for circulation continued, and the wide use of syndicated
columnists and ready-to-use features, comic strips, crossword puzzles, and other
amusements developed. A dozen large chains later came to control more than half of
the American dailies. The first American chain was organised by Edward W. Scripps
in the 1890s.

A pattern of consolidation and merger was to be seen world-wide, especially in the

second half of the 20th century.

Dissatisfaction with established papers, particularly among younger readers, led to

the rise in the second half of the 20th century of a diverse "underground," or
alternative, press. The Village Voice in New York City began publishing in 1955.

News agencies
Most of the news distributed internationally are provided by only four agencies, all in
Western countries: Reuters (British), the Associated Press (American), United Press
International (American), and Agence France-Presse (French).

Freedom of the press in the USA

Freedom of the press belongs to the traditional constitutional rights in the USA. It is
guaranteed in the first article of the constitution of 1791.

Thus the American press is not controlled by the state. Furthermore, in 1966
Congress passed the Freedom of Information Act. The law of Freedom of Information
Act (FOIA) allows any citizen, including newspaper reporters, to get information from
government records (also secret articles) .

Of a great political importance is the presidential press conference, an instrument for

the president to answer questions of journalists and to expound his political stance
on current affairs. Newspapermen thus play a significant part in the democratic
political process of the country.

There are no newspapers with a clear Democratic or Republican leaning. American

newspapers tend to be impartial and unbiased in their news reporting. Objective
information and personal comment are clearly separated.

There is a long tradition of investigative journalism with reporters acting as “private

eyes” to detect political corruption or to dig out secret military documents which are of
public interest.

Due to the size and the federal character of the US, it was virtually impossible to
have a nation-wide press comparable to the British press. However, three big
newspapers have succeeded. The financial newspaper Wall Street has been sold in
the south and west states, and USA Today was launched in 1981 as the first
American national newspaper.

Today there are about 9000 different newspapers with a circulation figure of 60
million copies. About 80 newspapers are foreign-language publications.

Press organs of international excellence are furthermore The Christian Science

Monitor and the two weekly magazines Time and Newsweek.

The Wall Street Journal and The Herald Tribune with their different editions in Europe
and Asia have started a new era, that of the world paper.

Most American dailies are “quality” papers and reflect responsible journalism.
Sensational press products like the New York Daily News are more of an exception.

US newspapers are mainly funded through advertising. Many of them, especially

Sunday editions, consist of a bulk of several hundred pages 60 % of which are filled
by advertisements.
Current issues
There is a growing tendency of Press concentration like in Britain (e.g. the Hearst
Newspapers).

A rising distrust is to be noticed with regard to investigative reporting which is often

felt to violate the right to privacy and fair treatment (plain muck-raking) and to defame
the American nation as such.

Ordinary American papers are written for the middle-of-the-road white American.
Minority groups maintain that their interests are not adequately covered and that
there is not enough serious criticism of the drawbacks of American society.

Comparison of British and American press

Britain is a nation of enthusiastic newspaper readers. More than 16 million people
buy a copy of a morning paper and countless Britons spend part of every Sunday
with the latest issue of their favourite Sunday paper.

As there is keen competition between the mass circulation dailies (papers which
appear every day) and weeklies, reporters are constantly in search of scoops (for
example exclusive interviews) to raise their circulation figures.

Britain’s newspaper market is very differentiated. In addition to the national

Sundays ( The Sunday Times, Sunday Telegraph, News of the World, etc.) there
are five national ‘quality’ dailies and seven national ‘popular’ dailies ( the latter ones
are called tabloids).

The quality newspapers, which are serious in content and approach and large in size,
appeal mainly to the educated classes, while the smaller tabloids with their many
photos and striking headlines are thought for the less intellectual man or woman in
the street. Besides all these national papers there are many local dailies as well as
weekly and monthly magazines and journals.

Some of the down-market tabloids are The Sun, The Daily Mirror, The Daily Mail, The
Daily Express etc., all of which have millions of readers.

To remain competitive tabloids often entice readers with shocking and sensational
stories, lurid details of scandals and crimes, pin-ups etc., which explains why they
are sometimes called the gutter press or ‘yellow press'.

Serious papers try to maintain a balance between the freedom of the press and the
public's right to know on the one hand and the journalistic code of ethics and the
individual's right to privacy on the other hand.
In the USA there is no newspaper that strictly speaking , can be defined as a national
paper. Only The Washington Post, USA Today and The Wall Street Journal are of
nation-wide importance.

However there are local and regional papers as well as a wide variety of periodicals
and news magazines (Time, Newsweek ).

In both Britain and the USA the press has undergone radical changes over the last
few decades. As more newspapers were brought up by powerful publishers, huge
newspaper chains emerged and a trend towards concentration of the press and of
the mass media in general could be noticed. Another trend which has had a great
impact on newspapers were syndicated columns, cartoons etc. by prominent
journalists and cartoonists which were published by such news-reporting services as
Reuters and AP (Associated Press) which made the collection of information and
foreign news more efficient.

More recently, new techniques have replaced the traditional printing presses.

Apart from some minor differences serious newspapers basically offer the same
topics. Journalists cover international events on the front pages or back pages,
columnists write about fashion, motoring or financial topics, special features on topics
like education and gardening, sports reporters inform the readers on the special
events, cartoonists amuse them with comic strips and cartoons and critics write
reviews of the latest plays, books etc.

Additional features are leading articles (leaders) written by the editor,

correspondence columns with letters to the editor, the latest part of a serialised novel,
notices of births, deaths and marriages, crossword puzzles, horoscopes and
advertisements.

Considerable space is devoted to ads of various kinds, including classified ads, as

newspapers could not survive without advertising revenues.

The publishing house has its papers printed and then taken to the news-agents.
Subscribers’ papers are delivered to their homes, as their subscription includes this
service.
1
about half the size of a standard paper (15. 23 inches [38, 58 cm])

Written by Roland Kunzweiler GK 12 Wilhelm-Röpke-Schule Ettlingen 1999