Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1873-01-09
American journalism.


| 1t is instructive and encouraging to
glance at the history of American journal
ism. 1t was not until the lapse of two
centuries, after the discovery of the art
of printing, that the idea was conceived
of applying that art to the production
OF anything like public newspaper. In
the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries,
indeed, the need of such an agency for
the diffusion of intelligence among the
people was scarcely felt, and the predic-
ton that a newspaper, in the modern
sense of the word, could ever have an ex-
lstence, would no doubt have been re-
garded as evidence of the widest lunacy.
1t has been impossible to fix with GER
tainty the date at which the first pub
lie journal made its appearance; we
only know-perhaps should rather say
conjecture it was some time in the
10th century, and in Italy. The first
newspaper in England was established in
1857. The Puritans had printing press
at Cambridge, Mass, as early es 1889,
but the first newspaper in America-the
Boston Nea0s Letter-did not appear IN
til sixty-fve years later-to wit, in 1904.
Fourteen years earlier, however, a single
number of a journal was issued, which
was promptly condemned and probably
suppressed by the Colonial Assembly.
The first newspaper of Philadelphia APP
peared Dec. %, 1719; the first in New
York, Oct. Is, 1925. These, of course,
were all weeklies. Since that day the
growth of journalism in this country is
among the marvels of our history, as a
few figures, cleaned from various
sources, will show:
In 1854, there were four newspapers
III Boston, two in New York, two in
Philadelphia, and one in Williamsburg,
Va; in the whole country not another
From that time until 1916, the year of
the Declaration of Independence, the
number increased considerably. In that
year there were seven in Massachusetts,,
one in New Hampshire, two in Rhode
Island, four In Connecticut, four In New
York, nine in Pennsylvania, two each in
In Maryland, Virginia, and North Caro-
lima, one in Georgia thirty seven in all
One of these-the Aduertiser, of Phila-
delphia-was semi-weekly; all the rest
were weeklies. From 1776 to 1900 the
number of newspapers in the United
States increased to 200, of which several
were dailies, the first daily having been
the Pennsylvania Packet, or the Gen
erdt Aduertiser, which, under an alb
breviated title, lived until 1887. Ac-
cordlng to the census of 1910 the num-
Der of newspapers in the country at that
time was 359, of which 81 were dailies,
and their total annual issue was q, 321,
900 copies. In 1924 there were IL dailies
in Philadelphia and II in New York, with
a circulation varying from 1000 to 1000
copies. In 1928 the whole number of
yearly issue of IS, 117,1 79 copies. In
1880 the number was estimated at 1000.
The census of 1910 returned 1,631 news
papers, with yearly issue of 195, 1888,
| 673 copies, or an average of nearly %
copies to each person in the population,
and of a little over II journals to every
10000 inhabitants. In 1910 the num-
| Der of dailies was 254, with an average
circulation of 3, 200 copies each. In 1860
there were 1856 dailies, 70 bi-weeklies, Sc
tri-weeklies, and 3,173 weeklies The
number of sheets issued annually was
dailies, 1,47S, 1876; tri-weeklies, 107, 40;
bi-weeklies, 175, 165; weekhes, 1881, $50,
making total of 9,342, 500. At the
present time, according to George P.
Rowell & Co. s american Newspaper
Directory, the number of dailies in the
country is 526; of tri-weeklies, 107; OF
semi-weeklies, 113; of weeklies, 4,80S.
| The amount of circulation of all these
papers is not given; but it is safe to as
sumo that the increase in the last ten
years has been very great. l think it
can be no exaggeration if we set the
number at $4,000, 900 copies. Oliuer
| .IOhnSnn