page_title: United States Telephone Herald Company
section_title: New Jersey Telephone Herald Co. (Newark)
hierarchical_section_title: United States Telephone Herald Company / Associate companies that launched telephone newspapers / New Jersey Telephone Herald Co. (Newark)
caption_attribution_description: English: Daily schedule of the New Jersey Telephone Herald news and entertainment system
context_page_description: The United States Telephone Herald Company, founded in 1909, was the parent corporation for a number of associated "telephone newspaper" companies, located throughout the United States, that were organized to provide news and entertainment over telephone lines to subscribing homes and businesses. This was the most ambitious attempt made to develop a distributed audio service prior to the rise of radio broadcasting in the early 1920s.
  At least a dozen associate companies were chartered, but despite initial optimism and ambitious goals, only two systems ever went into commercial operation — one based in Newark, New Jersey and the other in Portland, Oregon. Moreover, both of these systems were shut down after operating for only a short time, due to economic and technical issues.
  Corporation activity peaked in 1913, but the lack of success caused the company to suspend operations, and the corporation charter for the United States Telephone Herald Company was repealed in early 1918.
context_section_description: Of the two Telephone Herald affiliates which launched commercial services, the New Jersey Telephone Herald was both the first and most publicized. The company had been incorporated in October 1910 in the state of New Jersey by Eugene Gorenflo, Duncan McIsaac and Nicholas J. Surgess.
  The original plan was to begin operations in March 1911, however, the New York Telephone Company, which operated the Newark telephone system franchise, initially refused to lease telephone lines to the Telephone Herald, on the grounds that their charter did not permit it. It required a ruling by the Public Utility Commission to compel the telephone company to provide the needed wires. The hiring process for the stentors, who worked as the news readers, was competitive and rigorous. According to one of the original stentors, the position was restricted to "college men" with strong voices and extensive vocabularies. Throughout the day four stentors announced during rotating shifts of 15 minutes each, and did staff work when they were not announcing.
  An ambitious daily service, closely patterned after the Telefon Hírmondó, was launched in October 1911, transmitting to fifty receivers located in a department store waiting room plus five hundred Newark homes. The company's central offices, studio, and switch rooms were located in the Essex Building on Clinton Street in Newark. Condit S. Atkinson, who had extensive newspaper experience, headed the service's news department.
  The company reported that there were many persons eager to sign up with the innovative service, and it soon had more potential subscribers than could be supported. One young listener later remembered that "it was a great thrill to pick up the small receiver and hear a voice telling about world events", moreover, "It was such a novelty that I could scarcely wait to get home from school and listen to it. It fascinated me. I would listen as long as it was operative, or until I was called to do my homework." One of the program features was a series of original "Trippertrot" stories, written by local children's author Howard R. Garis, which were later assembled into two book collections: Three Little Trippertrots and Three Little Trippertrots on Their Travels, published in 1912.
  Despite the enthusiastic response, the company soon ran into serious technical and financial difficulties. Due to a revenue crisis, which resulted in employees walking off the job due to missed paychecks, the service was suspended in late February 1912. A replenishment of funding resulted in a temporary revival in late May, with the primary company officials now consisting of Percy Pyne (president), William E. Gunn (vice-president and general manager), and C. E. Danforth (secretary-treasurer), with C. S. Atkinson renewing his editor functions. The service, now calling itself the "telectrophone", was relaunched in November, however, this would only be a temporary respite, and the telephone newspaper transmissions shut down for good at the end of the year.
  A later review suggested that the primary issue was technical, as the twisted pair phone lines used for the Newark operation had different electrical characteristics than the wiring used by the original Telefon Hírmondó plant. Following the permanent suspension of services, the New Jersey Telephone Herald's business charter was declared null and void on January 18, 1916.
caption: New Jersey Telephone Herald's daily schedule (1912)[11]