Skip to main content

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.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Media, News and Children (extra post)

  Over the past year, I have done a little research on children and the media. This has been for my violent crime class and my Media Law and Literacy class. There have been some studies done showing that media influence is fine on children and some saying to limit a child's time surrounded by media, but what is the influence of the news on a child? I’ve asked myself this question a few times and have decided to do some research on it and share my findings here!  Most children have been exposed to some sort of news throughout their lives. There's usually news playing in the background of the TV or on the radio in the car. Children who see or even hear about crime, natural disasters, and catastrophic events may cause them fear, stress, and anxiety. Only in the past few years News stations have been adding parental advisory notices to the contents that they are broadcasting. Studies have been showing that children tend to copycat or imitate what they are hearing or seeing on the...
Post a Comment
Read more

EOTO: Henry Raymond's New York Times

     The New York Times was first started in 1851. As most of us know the New York Times to be a huge news outlet it wasn't always like that. When the Times first came out Henry Raymond wanted to be in competition with the big dog new papers, especially during the Civil War. Their first order of business was to come out with a Sunday paper during the Civil War with new updates. No other news firm was doing this at the time. This helped them get some recognition, but not what put them on the grid. After the Civil War, The New York Times decided to put in more effort to stand out. They went by the rule "all the news that's fit to print". This was a huge success at first. It was seen as an early success because the paper set a pattern to appeal to a cultured , intellectual readership instead of a mass audience. This was a new type of news delivery. The bigger New York papers were reporting mostly on war and politics. The New York Times wanted to stand out from them. The...
Post a Comment
Read more

EOTO #4 Ted Rowlands

  To be a journo hero you don't have to accomplish the unthinkable. In every profession, there are heroes big and small. One journo hero that has inspired me is my dad. Ted Rowlands isn't the most well-known journalist in the world, but his accomplishments and love for journalism have helped him strive in his industry.  Ted was born in Chicago IL in 1966. He grew up in Madison Wisconsin and was surrounded by sports his entire life. Ted played football, baseball, and hockey. Growing up Ted wanted to be a businessman and had no intentions of joining the world of Journalism. Ted attended the University of Wisconsin in Madison. He was a business major who worked at the local golf course as a caddy. One of the members was the morning anchor at the local News station. He offered Ted an internship to work for him. The second he stepped into the Newsroom he fell head over heels for Journalism. Ted graduated from UW with a bachelor's degree in communication arts. Right out of colleg...
Post a Comment
Read more