Blog Post 2; EOTO 1 The History of The New York Tribune

The History of The New York Tribune

     Today, we rely heavily on journalism due to the notable and impactful history of newspapers in our country. One of these is The New York Tribune. The New York Tribune was established in 1841 by a well-known editor, Horace Greeley. The Tribune was politically associated with the Whig Party and was the dominant news source for this party from the 1840s up until the 1860s and played a tremendous role in shaping the American political opinion. The paper also amassed a record-breaking circulation of about 200,000 in the 1850s, which made it the largest daily paper in New York City.

    As mentioned, The New York Tribune was part of the dominant Whig party. Horace Greeley founded the New York Tribune as a Whig party, penny paper on April 10, 1841, and would continue as its editor for the next thirty years. The Whig party was a major political party in the United States formally organized in 1834. They united in their opposition to what was viewed as the executive tyranny of King Andrew Jackson. This political group largely favored an activist economic program, what we know today as the American System. 

    At this point in time, New York had an appetite for news that was undeniable, hence Greeley's introduction of the New York Tribune.  

    The Tribune offered a strong moralistic flavor. The Tribune largely provided political news, special articles, lectures, book reviews and excerpts, and poetry. Similar to other penny papers, the Tribune was not averse to building circulation by including stories that involved sex and crime, but they were careful to present this material under the guise of cautionary tales and often played down crime reports and scandals. Greeley's vision for the paper was a "New Morning Journal of Politics, Literature, and General Intelligence" he could lay a foundation and build from there. Because of this writing and outlook, the Tribune became one of the more significant newspapers in the United States.

    With that, we can note that the first issue of the paper was published by no other than Horace Greeley on April 10th, 1841.

    This first publication planted the seeds of the paper's longevity and importance to future journalists. The New York Tribune was one amongst other news giants in the 1800s such as the New York Sun and New York Herald. All of these sources were penny papers, meaning the competition and urgency to deliver news quickly was growing, but neither of its competitors could match the success of the Tribune's weekly edition.

   

    However, 4 years later on February 5th, 1845, the New York Tribune burned down. With true determination, the Tribune paper was published the next day, only an hour late. It is worth mentioning that after the tragedy, the Tribune always kept a duplicate of everything needed for the publication of the paper. This eventually formed a complete duplicate office and resulted in this setback adding to the Tribune's overall success. 

    Throughout the Tribune's existence, it accumulated works from many notable editors and feature writers. These included Henry Raymond, Charles A. Dana, Margaret Fuller, and others. Karl Marx even served as the London correspondent for the paper from 1851 to 1862. In the earlier days, the Tribune's editorial columns held a variety of educational reforms and producer cooperatives. Other memorable aspects of the Tribune's publishings include opposing women's suffrage, supporting Lincoln only in the Civil War (but not during his re-nomination in 1864), and promoting the anti-slavery case which was a big issue at this time.  

    After serving as editor and publisher of The New York Tribune, Greeley died in 1872. This left the paper under Whitelaw Reid's watch from 1873 until 1912 when his son, Ogden, succeeded him. Under Ogden, the Tribune became one of the nation's leading Republican newspapers. 

    In the Tribune's overall running, its general precept that "liberty was the paramount democratic virtue and that equality of opportunity, not of attainment, was the highest ideal of social justice" was seen very differently under the direction of Greeley and Reid. What changed drastically was the role of newspapers as moral preceptors. This was mainly due to the introduction and advancement in technology and social pressure.  

   In 1924, Ogden purchased The New York Herald and the Tribune merged with them to form the

New York Herald Tribune. This merge was credited for its typographical excellence, high-quality writing, foreign reporting, and political columnists. The Herald-Tribune now reigned as the major voice of moderate Republicans and was the major source of news for the next four decades. The Tribune-Herald merge set the stage for the future of journalism.  

    Adding to the previous topic of technological advances for journalism, by 1941, technology and social upheaval continuously dimmed the thunder of editorial pages. This was damaging to the Herald-Tribune as well as other papers because their power to persuade had been overthrown by the public opinion on certain events.

 

    Writers and editors were now shaping their front page editorials based on public opinion, not their own. Despite this being seen as a setback at the time, today we know it was a great advantage based on the kind of journalism we see and want today. 

    Without a doubt, the New York Tribune exerted considerable influence in shaping journalism today. The paper eventually attracted 300,000 subscribers and millions of readers pursued its columns. This made the Tribune one of the largest and most notable newspapers of this time.

    The Tribune at this point in history was a very unique institution. Not only did it have the largest circulation of newspapers on a national scope from Maine to California, but it was home to the

publications of some of the greatest leading minds. The weekly and semi-weekly editions expounded political and economic doctrines which struck a chord in readers who absorbed the writing in the editorial columns with unquestionable enthusiasm.

    It was also part of the surge of penny papers that strived to make a variety of papers to reach ordinary readers. With a relatively consistent ideology, the Tribune contained rigorous debates on some of the most pressing social and political issues of the day. The Tribune even forged important connections abroad, as mentioned earlier. It is worth noting that the New York Tribune, in part, shaped the opinion of domestic politics by international events. 

 

    The New York Tribune lead an organ of both the Whig and Republican parties and bridged the world of politics, literature, and social reform. Due to the Tribune and other newspapers of this time, we can see the growth and change of journalism. Without these influential writers and editors that came before us, we would not have the kind of journalism we see today and it is worth diving into the history of news to see how vital it is to our democracy. 

"Freedom of the press is only guaranteed by those who own one." 

- A.J. Liebling, 1960