Penny newspaper

“ Mr. Parker gave her the car keys, and walked on to his own newspaper. Entering the Times building, Penny spoke to several high school boys who were working in the advertising office, and climbed the stairs to her own office.
For the next half hour she checked over galley proofs, marking corrections on the margins.
“I never imagined there could be so many things to do on a weekly,” she sighed. “One never gets through.”
A board creaked in the newsroom. Penny heard it and glanced up. A shadow passed slowly across the frosted glass of the office door. ”

“ It is to economize time rather than money that the modern reader would often prefer a halfpenny paper; while the man of leisure, who likes to peruse leading articles and full descriptive accounts, finds what he needs in the more highly priced journals. The halfpenny paper in England has not had to contend with the opposition that the penny newspaper met from its threepenny contemporaries in the 'fifties and 'sixties. This is largely due to the fact that in most cases the contributors, paper, printing and general arrangement of the cheaper journal do not leave much room for criticism. ”

“ Before the introduction of Penny Postage, a newspaper transmitted by post between a post-town and, with few exceptions, any of the 10,000 places which have now sub-offices, was subjected to a charge of at least one penny; and when transmitted between any two of the above 10,000 places, with but few exceptions, to a charge of at least twopence.
At present a newspaper, even without the impressed stamp, if posted at any one of the 11,400 places at which head or sub-offices are now established, provided only that it does not exceed 4 ozs. in weight, is delivered at any other for a single penny. ”

“ From him she had learned many details of the newspaper business. In fact, having a flare for reporting, she had written many of the paper’s finest stories.
Penny was a friendly, loveable little person. Not for long could she remain downhearted. As she walked down the long hallway, its great expanse of polished floor suddenly looked as inviting as an ice pond. With a quick little run she slid its length. And at the elevator corner she collided full-tilt with a bent old man who hobbled along on a crooked hickory cane. ”

“ But Jerry Livingston, one of the best reporters on the paper, was still pecking out copy on a noisy typewriter.
“Hi, Penny!” he observed, grinning as she brushed past his desk. “Have you caught any more witch dolls?”
“Not for the front page,” she flung back at him. “My newspaper career is likely to remain in a state of status quo for the next two weeks. Dad and I are heading for Pine Top to dazzle the natives with our particular brand of skiing. Don’t you envy us?”
“I certainly would, if you were going.”
“If!” exclaimed Penny indignantly. “Of course we’re going! We leave Thursday by plane. ”

“ Passing the stereotyping department, the girls entered the press room where slumbered ten giant double-decked rotary presses. Lying on the roller of one was a torn strip of newspaper, the last issue of the Morning Press ever printed.
“It gives one a queer feeling to see all this,” said Louise. “Why do you suppose Judson closed the plant when it was prosperous?”
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“No one seems to know the answer,” Penny replied, stooping to peer into an empty ink pot. “But it doesn’t seem possible a man would give up his business, throw so many persons out of work, without a good reason.” ”

“ The door closed in her face. Distinctly she heard a key grate in the lock.
“Well, how do you like that?” Penny muttered angrily. “Who does he think he is, anyhow?”
She started away, only to pause and gaze thoughtfully back at the darkened windows. To return to the newspaper office without a story would be humiliating. A good reporter never failed.
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“There must be some way to see that ceremony!” she reasoned. “Perhaps I can slip in through a rear door.”
Penny circled the building, taking care to avoid snow patches where revealing footprints would be left behind. ”

“ Penny was tempted to tell Horney about the clipping, but refrained from doing so. However, she was satisfied that employes of the Morning Press had gained no inkling of Mr. Judson’s prison record.
The picnic was well under way by the time Penny and the pressman arrived at the river cottage. A caterer had taken complete charge, and with his crew of helpers, prepared to serve nearly two hundred boisterous, hungry newspaper employes.
Always a favorite, Penny immediately was surrounded by a group of friends. ”

“ The life and power of any newspaper or periodical is thus doubly entrusted to the hands of its readers and to their opinion of it. They must draw from it amusement, instruction and business facilities and for the latter the newspaper proprietor is even more concerned than for the former. The secret of the miracle whereby 6d. or 10 cents worth of news and literary matter can be sold in the streets for one penny or one cent is that the reader makes a return to the newspaper for every copy, which he buys, equivalent to the difference in price. ”

“ The Illustrated London News had been announced for publication on the Saturday of the week in which I saw the wretched foreigners standing at the bar. I knew something about hurrying on wood-engravers 281 for the Penny Magazine, but a newspaper was an essentially different affair. How, I thought, could artists and journalists so work concurrently that the news and the appropriate illustrations should both be fresh? ”

“ Weems!”
Leaving an exhausted housekeeper behind, the girl made a quick trip to the downtown newspaper office.
As she reached the building, newsboys were on the streets crying the first edition, just off the press.
Upstairs, in the newsroom, reporters were relaxing at their desks, taking a few minutes’ “breather” between editions.
Swinging through the entrance gate, Penny created a slight stir. At one of the desks under a neon light, Jerry Livingston, pencil behind one ear and hair slightly rumpled, tapped aimlessly at the keys of a typewriter. ”

“ The Herald, feeble as it was, managed to survive financial diseases concomitant with newspaper infancy, and at the beginning of 1847 it appeared with a new dress as The Morning Herald and The Evening Herald. An editorial spoke as follows about the penny press in Boston: "The competition of the penny press has caused a mental activity among all classes; rash and impul- sive it may be, but, nevertheless, far preferable to the dignified stagnation which, in times of yore, was seldom broken by the larger and more expensive journals." ”

“ Downey.
Penny unpacked her suitcase, and then set forth at a brisk walk for the village. She found the telegraph station without difficulty and dispatched a message to her father, telling him of Harvey Maxwell’s presence in Pine Top.
The town itself, consisting of half a dozen stores and twice as many houses, was soon explored. Before starting back up the mountain Penny thought she would buy a morning newspaper. But as she made inquiry at a drug store, the owner shook his head.
“We don’t carry them here. The only papers we get come in by plane. They’re all sold out long before this.” ”

“ It is true that some few newspapers exceed the limit of weight (4 ozs.) which is carried for one penny, and they are therefore charged higher rates; but, on the other hand, two or more of the lighter newspapers—the aggregate weight of which does not exceed the 4 ozs.—are frequently sent under the same cover, and only one penny is charged on the packet. The average postage of each newspaper, when prepaid with the postage stamp, will therefore, in all probability, not exceed one penny per transmission. ”

“ The public, which might not, it was presumed, be familiar with the journalistic revolution that had taken place in New York, where there were now three penny papers—two of them successful, the Sun and the Herald — was informed in the first announcement that "in the Cities of New York and Brooklyn, containing a population of 300,000, the daily circulation of the penny papers is not less than 70,000. This is nearly sufficient to place a newspaper in the hands of every man in the two cities and even of every boy old enough to read. ”

“ Thousands of penny newspapers were distributed each week in the country cities." They were sold in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, at two-thirds of a cent a copy to the newsboys and carriers, who sold them on the street at a cent, or delivered them over their routes and collected six cents from each customer on Saturday. What seemed to amaze people most was the fact that in New York you would not see a laborer waiting or resting on a job, without also seeing a penny paper in his hands. ”

“ A lady news agent, that has a good location and a small circulating library, told me she has occupied the place for several years, and so has regular customers. She does it to aid her husband in supporting and educating their children, but thinks an individual could earn for self alone a comfortable living by keeping a news depot. In the large cities of the North are newspaper agents (men) who solicit advertisements, for which they receive a commission from editors. There is a Miss S. in New York, who makes a very good living by obtaining advertisements for the principal city papers. ”

“ Subscribers received their papers by carriers, and tran- sient purchasers had to go to the counters of newspaper offices. The penny press, however, did not wait to enroll annual sub- scribers, but tried to market its merchandise daily through boys. The pages of the early penny papers fairly bristled with advertisements of "Boys Wanted." The first issue of The Public Ledger in Philadelphia contained a small advertisement to this effect :
50 MEN AND BOYS can make it an advantageous business to circulate this paper. ”

“ Your paper should take a more dignified stand; and not condescend to notice the assaults of the degraded penny press. The price of your journal is such that it is taken only by readers of the more intelligent classes; readers who despise the vulgarity of the penny newspapers, and who have cause to feel themselves affronted when you give so large a space, or any space, indeed, to a refutation of their absurdities. ”

“ A reporter must be a close observer of matters and things in general that pertain to individual or public affairs. A verbal or written account is furnished to the publication in which the reporter is interested. A reporter attends public assemblies of any kind, and writes down or stenographizes the proceedings of said assembly. In a city, places of amusement, lectures, political and church meetings, form subjects of interest to a newspaper reporter. Noting the proceedings of legislative and other legal assemblies forms the most regular and reliable employment. ”

“ Devoted to "literature, drama, police and court proceedings, news, etc.," it had a short life, in its first appearance in 1834, and a not much longer in its second in 1836. Kingsley later, however, rendered a more effi- cient service to American journalism by improving the method for stereotyping page forms of newspapers. Women were not neglected by the penny press. An attempt to reach them was
made on April 29, 1836, when The Ladies 1 Morning Star, price one cent, appeared above the newspaper horizon. ”

“ Every compositor on the Tribune at work at the case has thirty-seven cents per thousand ems, and thirty cents per hour for steady time." The present [Pg 383] price required by members of the New York Typographical Union for newspaper work, when employed by the week, is $12—ten hours constituting a day's work. For book and job work $11 is required. At the Day Book office I saw one of the editors, who thinks women do not correct so well as men, and they want self-reliance. Besides, they cannot lift the forms. Men are paid better for these reasons. ”

“ There are said to be many book and paper agents in New York city—both men and women—and they are paid the same percentage. The time of work is confined to daylight. If newspaper advertisements for book agents can be relied on, we suppose the business would pay well. We can scarcely glance over the columns of a newspaper without finding a call for agents to present the merits of some new work, with the promise that, if active and diligent, the individual will clear from $30 to $100 per month. It requires judgment, taste, and a knowledge of what is popular in the book market. ”

“ Reynold’s Weekly News (1852) , an extremely Radical popular organ and the People, allied with the Globe, each have a large following. Finally the Sunday Chronicle of Manchester is the best representative of some very widely circulated papers in the provinces with issues running up to a million in many cases.
The revolution in the English press, which has extended to every corner of journalism,200 except the “heavy weeklies,” originally started in the provinces and spread to London with three rather insignificant gossipy and anecdotic penny weeklies. ”

“ A newspaper states that there are printed in Austria 10 newspapers, 14 in Africa, 24 in Spain, 20 in Portugal, 30 in Asia, 65 in Belgium, 85 in Denmark, 90 in Russia and Poland, 320 in other German States, 500 in Great Britain, and 1,800 in the United States. Taking merely newspaper and magazine literature into consideration, does not our republic offer inducements to intellectual culture? Does she not reward talent and encourage industry? ”

“ I have been told that when an article is sent to a newspaper, and is known to have come from the brain and the pen of a woman, ten to one, her compensation will be smaller for it, and in many cases it will be rejected. ”