EOTO #3 Newsies

The second you google Newsies or Newsboys two things come up. The Broadway Musical ‘The Newsies' or the band named Newsboys. It feels like we have forgotten a major part of history and where these things got their name! Luckily, after a few extra steps of google searching the Newsies come right up and that's what I'm going to be talking about today. 

During the mid-19th century, the Newsboys started to appear on the streets. They started to grow as the mass production of big Newspaper companies did. These boys were homeless and not in the best living conditions. They would pile themselves right under the stairwells of big newspaper companies and sleep there overnight. The kids were filthy, hungry, cold, and sick. The children would hound you to buy their paper. Some children didn't even have shoes, coats, or hats. Not every Newsboy was homeless and disgusting. A lot of the boy's families were immigrants. They would go to school in the morning and sell the afternoon paper until the evening. The Newsboys were the distributors of the afternoon paper. The morning papers would be delivered to the subscribers. The boys would buy their papers for 50 cents per 100. Most boys would end up selling each paper for a cent. The boys didn't have it good, but they managed until 1899. 

July 20, 1899. The Newsboys are ready to go on strike. The Newsboys for the New York Journal and New York World went on strike demanding that the price increase to 60 cents per 100 be brought back down. These boys were ruthless and were being led by their fearless leader Kid Blink. “

Ain’t that ten cents worth as much to us as it is to Hearst and Pulitzer who are millionaires? Well, I guess it is. If they can’t spare it, how can we?… I’m trying to figure out how ten cents on a hundred papers can mean more to a millionaire than it does to newsboys, an’ I can’t see it.” –Kid Blink, 1899. These kids planned meetings with paper owners, got into fights with older men, had 5,000-plus people meetings, and created leaders. It was hard for the boys to stick through the strike. It was a very violent strike. The boys announced if anyone was selling papers of the companies they were striking the boys would beat them in a mob. Flyers had been placed all over town encouraging others to also not buy papers. The boys needed their voices to be heard so they hosted a rally sponsored by the state senator Timothy D. Sullivan. The rally at Irving Hall had over 7,000 Newsboys there and another free thousand businessmen. Many businessmen and politicians spoke out on behalf of the boys. At the end of the rally stipulations were made that they are allowed to keep rallying, but the violence needs to stop. Only two weeks into the strike the damage was so great that the companies decided to talk to the Newsboys and make a deal. They came to the agreement to keep buying the papers for 60 cents, but the Newspaper company had to buy back all unsold papers. Once the plan was set the boys went right back to normal and sold papers. 

The Newsboys were a huge chunk of history in the Journalism world. They were the sole distributors of the afternoon papers and completely tanked large news corporations since they stopped. It’s crazy to see what just a small group of kids can do.