In the mid-19th century, with the large-scale circulation of penny newspapers in the United States, American newspaper propaganda activities emerged. This method of propaganda brought about a revolutionary change in the history of Western news communication. A series of new news concepts, new reporting methods and new management methods heralded the birth of the mass media era, ushered in a truly modern public relations era, and even created an emerging discipline - public relations. study.
Later generations named this predecessor of modern public relations activities after the "Barnum period". However, Barnum's publicity stunt was indeed somewhat disgraceful, so later generations often call this period the "period of public fooling", or even the "anti-public relations period", or "public relations period" dark times".
Penny newspapers were very popular as soon as they appeared
Before the Great Revolution, newspapers in the United States were few and expensive, with small circulation, and their main targets were limited readers. Even in 1765, there were only 23 weekly newspapers and no daily newspapers in the United States. Each newspaper costs 6 cents. This price is relatively expensive for ordinary people. Because ordinary workers earn less than 1 dollar a day, only those with wealth can afford to read it. Newspapers are generally 4 pages long, and their content mainly covers navigation-related commercial matters such as the arrival of merchant ships, piracy, and legal disputes. It wasn't until 1783 that the first daily newspaper, the Minnesota Evening Post, appeared.
Political newspapers became popular during and after the American Revolution. By the time of the American Industrial Revolution in the 1830s, the cost of printing newspapers fell sharply, and large-scale newspapers began to appear. At the same time, education has become increasingly popular, literacy rates have increased, and the population has increased, providing newspapers with a large potential readership. In 1830, Philadelphia's first penny newspaper, the Cent Newspaper, was born. But not long after, it and two other penny papers quickly died. The most famous of the earliest penny newspapers were the three penny newspapers in New York: the "New York Sun" founded in 1833, the "New York Herald" founded in 1835, and the "New York Tribune" founded in 1841.
These newspapers are very different from the newspapers of the past. Take the New York Sun as an example. It has improved its reporting content, swept away the lifeless and lengthy style of old newspapers, and published a large number of eye-catching social news and local news. Starting in the summer of 1835, the New York Sun published novel and perverted news about pranks, murders, train accidents, cannibalism, deformities, etc., which became very popular among readers.
In addition, it also innovated the distribution method and pioneered the method of using newsboys to retail newspapers on the streets. Not only did the retail price be low, but the newsboys were also given substantial discounts. For example, if you sell 100 newspapers to a newsboy, you only charge 67 cents. As long as you sell 100 newspapers, the newsboy can earn 33 cents, which is equivalent to 1/3 of an adult's daily salary. This method greatly stimulates the enthusiasm of the newsboy. The secret that supports the operation of newspapers is advertising. The New York Sun publishes a large number of advertisements, and even pioneeringly publishes advertisements on the masthead. For these reasons, the "New York Sun" was very popular. When it was first published, its circulation was only 1,000 copies. Six months later, it reached 8,000 copies. Two years later, it reached 15,000 copies. By 1839, it reached 50,000 copies.
The unprecedentedly huge circulation of the "New York Sun" shocked the newspaper industry, and various places rushed to open penny newspapers. Soon there were 12 in New York City alone. Penny newspapers also appeared in commercial centers such as Boston, Philadelphia, and Baltimore. The Boston Daily Times was founded on February 16, 1836. Within just a few weeks, it became Boston's largest newspaper, and its circulation reached 8,000 copies a month later. The "Philadelphia Public Cornerstone" was first published on March 25, 1836. Its circulation reached 10,000 copies eight months later and 20,000 copies 18 months later. Nine months after the "Baltimore Sun" was founded in 1837, its circulation exceeded 10,000 copies, which was three times the total circulation of other Baltimore newspapers.
The emergence of the penny newspaper quickly created a new situation in the American newspaper industry. The newspaper industry quickly prospered, with annual circulation soaring from 68 million copies in 1828 to 14.8 billion copies in 1840. , an increase of 117%, while the U.S. population grew by only 40% during the same period. By 1910, there were 2,433 daily newspapers in the United States alone, and this peak record has not been broken since then.
Advertising facilitated sales gimmicks
Penny newspapers were cheap but increasingly prosperous. Like the New York Sun, their survival was through advertising in their newspapers. Advertising brings direct cash income, rather than the unreliable deposits of traditional newspaper subscribers in the past. The content of advertising caters to the public and is closely related to people's life needs. Advertisements for patented medicines, talent recruitment, lottery sales, etc. that newspapers would not bother to publish in the past have become popular. As long as they pay the advertising fee, everyone is equal and anyone can publish news.
This approach was somewhat unconventional, and traditional newspapers angrily attacked the penny papers. In order to compete, penny newspapers also attacked each other. The New York Tribune criticized the New York Sun and the New York Herald, saying it was shameless for them to publish advertisements for Ms. Restell, a well-known abortion doctor in New York. In fact, the New York Tribune also published a large number of advertisements for patent medicines. In 1852, the New York Times criticized the New York Herald for being "the recognized mouthpiece of quackery," but it itself published advertisements for liniments by Dr. Kelinger, who boasted that he was an "American psychopath."
But these arguments have little impact on operations. Spurred by profits, penny newspapers were even more willing to publish these lucrative ads. The effectiveness of advertising has stimulated a substantial increase in penny newspaper advertising costs. In order to save advertising costs, some companies and individuals hire specialized personnel to create gimmick-style inflammatory news in newspapers and periodicals to promote their products or services. The Penny News was also willing to adopt these gimmicks to cater to the public and expand its influence. Under the wishful thinking, the Penny News took the opportunity to launch a newspaper promotion campaign.
From the current perspective, the birth of this newspaper propaganda method is a revolutionary change in the history of Western news communication, which has brought about a series of new news concepts, new reporting methods and new operations. This heralded the birth of the mass media era, ushered in the real era of modern public relations, and even created an emerging discipline - public relations science.
But few people at the time realized this. Everyone was more interested in seeing the gimmicks flying all over the place through the penny newspapers, and felt that the world was wonderful or a mess. We often see news like this in penny newspapers: a circus said that its most dangerous animal had escaped, an actress said that her jewelry had been stolen, and a few days later there was news that the actress had eloped... This news actually came from the gimmick makers, three of the most famous of whom were Harry Richebatch, James Moren, and Phineas Taylor Barnum.
Richbach works as an advertising planner for a movie company. He is good at designing eye-catching but harmless stunts to get free publicity for the company. He said he made the stunts look as newsworthy as seeing them in person, so people felt compelled to report on them.
Molun is also an expert in creating gimmicks and was once called "the last masterful deception artist in the publicity industry." He worked as a journalist and later engaged in public propaganda for 40 years. He invented many classic gimmicks. In order to help promote a dairy company, he dyed a cow purple and then promoted the company's purple cow in the newspaper; in order to promote a refrigerator, he traveled to Alaska He sold refrigerators to Eskimos and then hyped up his travels; to promote a movie, he spent 19 days sitting on an ostrich egg until an ostrich hatched.