Penny Press: - Bellevue College

Penny press:

In the early 1800s, most newspapers were weeklies, though some dailies did exist in     coastal cities. There were two types of newspapers: commercial and political.

The political papers, or "party press," were funded by political parties,  which openly dictated what would go in the paper.

Early     newspapers were small operations. One man generally served as editor, reporter (insofar as     there was any reporting at all), business manager, and printer.

This is not to     say that these papers were staid or sedate. True, dominated as they were by advertising     and shipping news, they appear to have been little more than bulletin boards for the     business community. But their editorials, in which they took great pride, were strongly     partisan, provocative, and ill-tempered. Editors attacked one another ferociously in     print, and this sometimes carried over into fist fights or duels.

Both commercial and political newspapers were expensive, and sold for around six     cents.

People could not buy them on the street; instead, they had to pay for a full year's     subscription. This meant that only the mercantile and political elites could afford to buy     newspapers.

Because of this, news focused on politics, business and the comings and goings of ships     in the port.

Then, in the 1830s (closer to the 1870s and 1880s in Canada), the penny press     revolutionized the way news was produced, distributed and consumed.

Instead of relying on subscriptions and political funding for revenue, the penny papers     chose to rely on advertising. They were therefore able to offer their version of news to     the public for merely a penny, and sold their papers in the streets.

Since many more people could now afford to buy a paper, the penny press had to try to     offer something for every type of reader. So it started hiring reporters to seek out     up-to-date news about everyday life. Because of this, the news emphasis shifted to local     happenings, and papers began including illustrations, lifestyle tips and other things that     would interest the working class.

Michael Schudson describes how enormous this change was:

For the first     time the American newspaper made it a regular practice to print political news, not just     foreign but domestic, and not just national but local; for the first time it printed     reports from the police, from the courts, from the streets, and from private households.     One might say that, for the first time, the newspaper reflected not just commerce or     politics but social life. - Michael Schudson,

John Peter Zenger 1733-35-on web.

SARAH JOSEPHA HALE (1788-1879) Edited Godey’s Lady‘s Book.

Hale's editorship (1837-1877) made her one of the most influential American women of the mid-nineteenth century, an arbiter of taste in dress, architecture, and literature, and a publicist for women's education, women's property rights, professions for women, early childhood education, public health, and other progressive causes. Yet she opposed suffrage and women's public speaking.

The magazine was intended to entertain, inform, and educate the women of America. In addition to extensive fashion descriptions and plates, the early issues included biographical sketches, articles about mineralogy, handcrafts, female costume, the dance, equestrienne procedures, health & hygiene, recipes & remedies, etc. Each issue also contained two pages of sheet music, written essentially for the piano forte. Gradually the periodical matured into an important literary magazine and contained extensive book reviews and works by Harriet Beecher Stowe, Edgar Allen Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and many other celebrated 19th century authors who regularly furnished the magazine with essays, poetry and short stories. The Lady`s Book was also a vast reservoir of handsome illustrations, which included hand-colored fashion plates, mezzotints, engravings, woodcuts, and ultimately chromolithographs.

In 1836 Godey purchased the Boston based American Ladies` Magazine, which he merged with his own. Most importantly Sarah Josepha Hale (1788-1879) became the new editor of Godey`s Lady`s Book. Mrs. Hale brought substance to the magazine, and wrote frequently about the notion of "women`s sphere." In 1846 she stated, "The time of action is now.We have to sow the fields-the harvest is sure. The greatest triumph of this progression is redeeming woman from her inferior position and placing her side by side with man, a help-mate for him in all his pursuits." Her steadfast devotion of purpose and her unwavering editorial principles regarding social inequalities and the education of American women, made her one of the most important editors of her time. Under Mrs. Hale`s tutelage the magazine flourished, reaching a pre-civil war circulation of 150,000. Godey and Hale became a force mageure in American publishing and together produced a magazine which today is considered among the most important resources of 19th century American life and culture.

This most successful publisher-editor relationship lasted for over 40 years. Louis A. Godey died on November 29, 1878 and Sarah J. Hale five months later, on April 30, 1879. It is interesting to note that they were both interred at LaurelHillCemetery overlooking the Schuylkill river.

by the outbreak of the Civil War 1861, Godey's Lady's Book was the most successful women's magazine in the United States, with a circulation of 150,000, and an estimated readership of a million persons. Subscribers from the cities of the northeast to the frontiers of the Pacific Northwest and the cotton plantations of the South enjoyed this monthly publication full of fashions, etiquette, receipts, patterns, house plans, crafts, helpful hints, health advice, short stories, poetry, book notices, and musical scores, all designed to inform "women" how to be "ladies." As the regions became increasingly politically estranged, Godey's remained a unifying force among elite women and those aspiring to that status. Literary editor Sarah Josepha Hale promoted such national concerns as the preservation of Mount Vernon and the importance of advanced education for young women.