The Penny Press was published in 1833 by Benjamin H. Day, when he launched his first successful penny newspaper, called the New York Sun. Penny papers were more affordable for poor families and individuals, whereas the cost for other newspapers was 6 cents and could only be afforded by the higher class. For this reason, the […]
Posts tagged with penny press
Sensationalism has manifested in multiple forms of journalism over time. In the 1830s, there were the penny papers. In the 1880s and 1890s, it shown through in the yellow journals. In the 1920s, tabloids became dominant in sensationalist use. Each of these forms of journalism utilized sensationalistic tactics to cater to and draw their audiences […]
The American press underwent big changes during the 1830s that led to the establishment of the mother of sensationalism, the penny press. Unlike their six-cent predecessors, these papers sold for merely a penny. The New York Sun became the first penny paper and soon had largest circulation of any paper in the city. News was […]
Imagine something as ubiquitous as a newspaper being too expensive for the average person to afford. This is exactly how it was for many Americans prior to the invention of the penny press. Newspapers were set at an average of 6 cents per copy prior to the introduction of the penny press. Because of this, […]
The opening chapter of Michael Schudson’s Discovering the News is basically a celebration of the brilliance that was the penny press. Schudson talks about how the penny press forever changed the face of journalism and of the dissemination of news, beginning in the early 1830’s. Schudson called the penny press a “revolution” for news. Schudson […]
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Tags: advertising, Benjamin Day, James Gordon Bennett, newsboys, newsies, NY Herald, paulsen, penny press, revolution, Schudson, technology
Tags: advertising, Benjamin Day, James Gordon Bennett, newsboys, newsies, NY Herald, paulsen, penny press, revolution, Schudson, technology
In Schudson’s, Discovering the News chapter 1, he goes into great depth about the penny press and how it transformed journalism from 1830 and on. He describes the 1830’s as a revolution in journalism; one that “led to a triumph of ‘news’ over the editorial and ‘facts’ over opinion.” Before 1830, party press and commercial […]
In the dark world of the constant price increases, there was a man who sought to slaughter these prices and to make things reasonable. He created a newspaper which would attract a larger class of people and did so in one of the busiest cities in the United States, New York City. The man was Benjamin Day, […]