Media - Newspapers

In 1990, the U.S. press celebrated its 300th anniversary as an institution and guardian of democracy. The first U.S. newspaper, Publick Occurrences: Both Foreign and Domestick, lasted only one day -- September 25, 1690 -- before it was suppressed by British colonial authorities. However, other newspapers quickly sprang up in the American colonies, and by 1730, the colonial press had gained sufficient stature to seriously challenge British governors.

By the 1820s, about 25 dailies and more than 400 weeklies were being published in the United States. Horace Greeley founded the New York Tribune in 1841, and it quickly became the most influential newspaper in America. Other important dailies, such as The New York Times, Baltimore Sun, and Chicago Tribune were founded in the 1850s. Two media giants, Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst, began building their newspaper empires after the Civil War (1861-1865). Their fierce competition produced "yellow journalism" -- sensational and often inaccurate reporting aimed at attracting readers. "Chain" newspapers under the same ownership became a dominant feature in the early 20th century. In addition to the front-running Hearst chain, the Scripps-Howard and Cowles chains grew following World War I. That trend accelerated after World War II, and in 1990, a total of 135 groups owned 1,228 daily newspapers, accounting for about 75 percent of all U.S. dailies!

- From “U.S. Media in the 1990s. Part I. Overview and the Print Media,” by Fredric A. Emmert

Online Documents

Statistics

Newspapers: Charts and Table - Annual Report on American Journalism
Books, Magazines, and Newspapers - Infoplease
Top 100 Daily Newspapers in the United States - Infoplease

Web sites