HISTORY OF NEWSPAPER

Discovering the News, by Michael Schudson

Schudson’s story begins in the 1820s, when the dominate newspapers where either organs
of political partisans or served the interests of the business class. They sold for six cents
per edition, but required annual subscriptions. This meant only the wealthiest Americans
could afford a newspaper. Few papers sold more than 2,000 copies per day.

In the 1830s, the penny press arrived. Some might think it was technology (steam-driven
cylinder presses) that drove the advent of the penny press, but it was really the rising tide of
a middle class in America, and a greater sense of democratic rule over gentry rule (voting
was now open to more than just land owners). The penny press met the demand for news
(something the six-penny papers didn’t have) by reporting actual events, such as murder
trials, rather than just political editorials.