Advertising became the financial backbone supporting journalistic enterprise when a mass market demanded a mainstream newspaper. Various pioneers rose to that challenge in mid-nineteenth century New York. Commercialism helped enlarge the public sphere, and sustain a penny press system devoted to addressing, what Dan Schiller called in Objectivity and the news, a “downwardly mobile” tradesperson readership. Compared to when political parties sustained an outwardly partisan, elite-oriented news industry, this Jacksonian age built itself on a revolutionary notion examined by scholar John Nerone, that news should represent rather than merely inform public opinion. In addition to direct marketing through block ads, other technological innovations fundamentally altered media production and distribution processes. Samuel Morse invented the telegraph around 1830, and afterwards, editors realized they could coordinate daily content. Media historian Michael Schudson – in a 1997 journal article – acknowledges a faulty assumption typically attached to journalism studies which says commercial forces always corrupt journalistic practice (463). As these examples illustrate, advertising and internal competition work in tandem with a desire to address concerns held by common people; they are compatible, even complementary ideals.

Before delving into an analysis of penny papers themselves, we should trace the historical origins of this popular press. Thomas Paine envisioned a literate population unified by just law, and represented by delegates accountable to men of every disposition. Grounded behind this revolutionary ideology, inspired by social contract philosophers like John Locke, the English-born writer penned a transformational pamphlet that encouraged dissolving bands from Britain. Prior to publishing this document of tremendous impact, however, Paine served a more modest position as editor of the Pennsylvania Magazine. A publication with reasonable local readership, Paine grew the magazine – a format unique from popular almanacs and journals – into a mobilization medium. According to scholar Edward Larkin, Paine viewed the press as a vital instrument of society, a tool that, as Paine wrote himself, holds an “influence over the manners and morals of people” (261-2). By analogizing Britain as an invasive insect and disloyal spouse, Thomas Paine successfully informed and persuaded a select population to support independence. In this instance, motivated by good judgment and a hopeful vision, Paine sought to bring ordinary Philadelphians into a conversation that would change fate and right their damaging political situation; greed simply paid no role in those endeavors.

Prior to waging a bloody war of independence, the notion of an American nation never really held weight. Colonists felt loyal to their respective states rather than a unified band of rebels, which explains why a thoughtfully worded essay like “Common Sense” provided such an extraordinary purpose in pre-revolutionary America. Acclaimed political scientist Benedict Anderson would argue that residents of these thirteen English colonies lacked a common bond that only later would the Constitution provide. Unlike most other countries, which identified by ethnic heritage and religious ties, a civic nationalist attitude came to define the United States of America. Despite being separated by geographical boundaries, complete strangers residing in New Hampshire and Georgia shared laws, a flag, and in recent memory, the tradition of gaining their freedom. This development occurred naturally within society, without any underlying economic forces to credit.

Printers such as Benjamin Franklin recognized that journals need to please a diverse audience of readers back in 1731, an understanding that is easy to understand around Anderson’s “imagined community” framework. A century later this statement still held true. Nineteenth century penny papers, while affordable because of an advertising funding model, expressed opinions that aligned with a diverse public. Dan Schiller described this audience in Objectivity and the News as “downwardly mobile artisans,” a classification intended to include craftsmen and mechanics alike. At this historical moment, social inequality rose along with domestic economic output. Immigrant populations in New York and other urban pockets fell into lower tiers with blue-collar labor. In earlier generations an apprenticeship system predominated in most careers. This no longer was the case. Michael Schudson explains in Discovering the News that it was alongside these economic shifts the penny press emerged:

“Modern journalism, which is customarily and appropriately traced to the penny papers, had its origins in the emergence of a democratic market society… Not only did more people and a greater range of goods participate in the marketplace, but a culture of the market became a more pervasive feature of human consciousness” (58-59).

According to Schudson, the concept of news changed to support these evolving social dynamics. Advertisers played no role in determining specific content that would be published in dailies. They were more interested in selling their goods and services than corrupting those of others. Not to mention, advertising existed during the days Thomas Paine was writing in Pennsylvania. According to Schiller, “not less than 15,000 advertisers, including many artisans, bought space in the Philadelphia press between 1764 and 1794” (9).

Thomas Paine prompted a political revolution by exposing the inherent mistake of colonial rule and the benefits that would come from independence. It all started with the Pennsylvania Magazine where he got his start. There was no commercial influence there, but rather an optimistic outlook of what the colonies could become. We can also understand that social changes following the establishment of the United States led a generation of businessmen to adapt the penny press to a broader market of consumers. Advertising simultaneously emerged and was adopted as the financial backbone to this system. Journalistic practice further catered to this “new middle class,” as Schudson refers them, after 1840. For example, Joseph Pulitzer of the New York World dramatically altered print design by publishing a large image on the paper cover, enlarging the type size, and reducing the number of lower-half columns. These changes do not reflect any commercial bias. They show that those in charge of writing news most basically want to please a diverse set of interests; Benjamin Franklin got it right in 1731.