NEWSPAPER 



4187 



NEWSPAPER 



lick Recurrences, Both Foreign and Domestick, 

 and was intended to be a monthly publication ; 

 but it was short-lived, for it printed some arti- 

 cles which sorely displeased the local authori- 

 ties, and they suppressed it. The next attempt 

 was in 1704, when the Boston News-Letter be- 

 gan a troubled existence of seventy-two years. 



The first paper published outside of Boston 

 was the American Weekly Mercury, of Phila- 

 delphia (1719). In 1721 James Franklin, as- 

 sisted by his brother, Benjamin Franklin, 

 started the New England Courant, which ran 

 until 1727. In this latter year the New Eng- 

 land Weekly Journal was first published, the 

 earliest paper in America to print advertise- 

 ments. It was a single sheet, measuring seven 

 by thirteen inches. In 1729 Benjamin Franklin 

 began, at Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania Ga- 

 zette, which he conducted weekly until 1765, 

 when it was merged with the North American; 

 the latter is now one of Philadelphia's leading 

 daily papers. The first New York newspaper 

 was the New York Gazette, started in 1725 by 

 William Bradford. At the outbreak of the 

 Revolution, thirty-four newspapers were in cir- 

 culation in the colonies, all but four of which 

 supported the American cause. 



In 1830 there began a rapid extension of 

 journalism. It was no doubt due to the estab- 

 lishment of daily papers in New York, which 

 almost at once became powerful. In 1833 the 

 Daily Sun appeared the first newspaper in the 

 United States to sell for one cent. In 1868 

 this paper was taken over by Charles A. Dana, 

 who gained for it a wide reputation. In 1835 

 James Gordon Bennett founded the Herald, and 

 set the pace for exclusive foreign news, regard- 

 less of expense. In 1841 the Tribune of New 

 York was born to the newspaper world; this 

 alert, vigorous sheet is to this day in the minds 

 of many a memorial of Horace Greeley, its 

 founder and for thirty years its editor. 



Not all of the early glory of newspaper 

 achievement in the United States is due to th<> 

 Eastern cities. In 1833, when Chicago had a 

 population of 800, the Chicago Democrat was 

 published weekly by John Culhoun, and was 

 printed on paper which he had brought west 

 with him. This paper appeared until 1861, 

 when it was absorbed by the Chicago Daily 

 Tribune. The Tribune began existence as an 

 evening paper, July 10, 1847, and led a check - 

 ered career until 1855, when it came under the 

 editorial supervision and general management 

 'oseph Medill, the friend of Abraham Lin- 

 coln and aptly called "the Nestor of the Illi- 



nois press." Under his management the Tri- 

 bune became the most powerful publication in 

 the Middle West, and its prestige steadily in- 

 creased after his death ; it is the second oldest 

 daily in Illinois, the Daily Journal having been 

 established in 1844. Another important Chi- 

 cago paper, the Daily News, was founded in 

 1875 as a one-cent evening paper; in 1917 it 

 was considered the second most profitable news- 

 paper enterprise in America. 



There are many other papers in the United 

 States of more than local importance. Many 

 of them, located in the smaller cities and towns, 

 owe their fame to the achievements of a single 

 able editor, but some have survived many gen- 

 erations. The best-known of these papers are 

 the Hartford (Conn.) Courant, Springfield 

 (Mass.) Republican, Boston Transcript, Phila- 

 delphia Public Ledger, Baltimore Sun, Cleve- 

 land Leader and Plain Dealer, Detroit Free 

 Press, St. Louis Globe-Democrat, Kansas City 

 Star, Atlanta Constitution and Journal, Louis- 

 ville Courier-Journal and Democrat, Denver 

 Republican, San Francisco Chronicle, and Port- 

 land Oregonian. The many papers owned by 

 William Randolph Hearst include the New 

 York Journal, the Chicago American and Ex- 

 aminer, the San Francisco Examiner, the Los 

 Angeles Examiner and the Atlanta Georgian. 



In the Dominion of Canada. In the establish- 

 ment of newspapers Canada was not far behind 

 the United States, for its first paper, the Hali- 

 fax Gazette, was published early in 1751; it 

 survived only about twenty years. In 1764 the 

 Quebec Gazette was established, followed in 

 the next year by the Montreal Gazette. For 

 three-quarters of a century the Toronto Globe, 

 a liberal organ, has played an important part in 

 the history of the Dominion. The Montreal 

 Herald and Daily Telegraph has been published 

 without interruption for over a century. The 

 Star of Toronto, although established as late 

 as 1892, has earned a place among leading pa- 

 pers as a dignified and reliable sheet. The 

 Manitoba Free Frets, published in Winnipeg, 

 holds the interest of the central provinces, and 

 tin World, of Vancouver, is among the leading 

 organs in the far West. 



Summary. It has been estimated there are 



now over 60,000 newspapers in the world, of 



which about 23,000 are published in the United 



States and 1,500 in Canada. Germany and 



Great Britain each have about 9,000, France 



nearly 7,000, Japan over 2,000, Italy and Aus- 



Hungary each about 1,500, and Australia 



1 ,000. 



