Newspaper hawker

Last updated
London newsboy Ned Parfett with news of the Titanic disaster, April 16, 1912 Titanic paperboy crop.jpg
London newsboy Ned Parfett with news of the Titanic disaster, April 16, 1912

A newspaper hawker, newsboy or newsie is a street vendor of newspapers without a fixed newsstand. Related jobs included paperboy, delivering newspapers to subscribers, and news butcher, selling papers on trains. Adults who sold newspapers from fixed newsstands were called newsdealers, and are not covered here. The hawkers sold only one newspaper, which usually appeared in several editions a day. A busy corner would have several hawkers, each representing one of the major newspapers. They might carry a poster board with giant headlines, provided by the newspaper. The downtown newsboy started fading out after 1920 when publishers began to emphasize home delivery. Teenage newsboys delivered papers on a daily basis for subscribers who paid them monthly. Hawkers typically purchased a bundle of 100 copies from a wholesaler, who in turn purchased them from the publisher. Legally every state considered the newsboys to be independent contractors, and not employees, so they generally were not subject to child labor laws.

Contents

In the United States they became an iconic image of youthful entrepreneurship. Famous Americans that had worked as newsboys included Bruce Barton, Ralph Bunche, Joe DiMaggio, Thomas Edison, Dwight Eisenhower, Sam Rayburn, Walter Reuther, David Sarnoff, Cardinal Spellman, Harry Truman and Mark Twain. [1]

United States

To the unemployed—A number of steady men can find employment by vending this paper. A liberal discount is allowed to those who buy and sell again.

—  Benjamin Day, 1833 [2]

Benjamin Franklin is sometimes called the "first American newsboy", as he helped deliver his brother's New England Courant in 1721. But the real beginning of the trade of newsboy comes in 1833, when the New York Sun started hiring vendors in New York City. At the time, newspapers were generally either picked up at the newspaper's office, sent by mail, or delivered by printers' apprentices or other employees. [2] The Sun, by contrast, was not sold in stores or by subscription. [3] Its publisher, Benjamin Day, recruited unemployed people using help-wanted notices to vend his newspaper. Instead of the adults he expected, his ad drew children: the first was the 10-year-old Irish immigrant Bernard Flaherty, who turned out to be a talented hawker—later a stage comedian—who would cry out the day's most sensational headlines: "Double Distilled Villainy"; "Cursed Effects of Drunkenness!"; "Awful Occurrence!"; "Infamous Affair!". [4] These newsboys could either hawk to passersby on the street or establish subscription routes; many did both. [2]

A newsgirl and boy selling papers outside saloon entrances in New York, 1910; girls were very rare. Lewis Hine, Newsgirl and boy selling around saloon entrances, Bowery, New York, 1910.jpg
A newsgirl and boy selling papers outside saloon entrances in New York, 1910; girls were very rare.

Newsboys' were not employees of the newspapers but rather purchased the papers from wholesalers in packets of 100 and peddled them as independent agents. Unsold papers could not be returned. The newsboys typically earned around 30 cents a day [5] (equivalent to $11in 2023) and often worked until late at night. [6] Cries of "Extra, extra!" were often heard into the morning hours as newsboys attempted to hawk every last paper. [7]

Great Depression

The local delivery boy pulling a wagon or riding a bicycle while tossing the morning or evening paper onto the front porch was a product of the 1930s. Newspapers lost circulation and advertising as the economy went down, and needed to boost revenues and cut expenses. Starting in 1930, the International Circulation Managers' Association launched a national operation to show local newspaper managers how to boost home newspaper readership. They designed a prepackaged curriculum in door-to-door subscription marketing that taught newsboys new skills in scheduling time, handling money, keeping accounts, and—especially—presenting a winning salesman persona. This movement created the middle-class newspaper boy and permanently altered the relationship between teenage years and entrepreneurial enterprise. [8] Circulation managers solved their problem: the teenage boys were still independent contractors rather than employees, but the circulation manager designed the routes and taught the boys how to collect and account for the subscription money. To inspire the young entrepreneurs, they created a distinctive gendered managerial philosophy of masculine guidance. It inspired the boys' entrepreneurship and stabilized their work habits while providing extra money for tight family budgets. [9]

Critics and reformers

Newsboys were often seen as victims of poverty and delinquents in the making. In 1875 a popular writer found them a nuisance:

There are 10,000 children living on the streets of New York....The newsboys constitute an important division of this army of homeless children. You see them everywhere.... They rend the air and deafen you with their shrill cries. They surround you on the sidewalk and almost force you to buy their papers. They are ragged and dirty. Some have no coats, no shoes, and no hat. [5]

In St. Louis, Missouri, in the first half of the 20th century, reformers and child savers saw the newsboys as potential victims of the dangers and temptations of the urban environment. They secured a law in 1903 which created the state's first juvenile courts with the ability to hear criminal cases involving minors. [10]

In Cincinnati in 1919, charity workers found that a tenth of the teenage boys were news hawkers, and they earned only 20 cents a day (equivalent to $4in 2023). They were twice as likely to be delinquents, they gambled a great deal amongst themselves, and were often attacked by thugs from other newspapers. The recommendation was to replace newsboys under the age of 16 with crippled war veterans. [11]

The paintings of London artist Augustus Edwin Mulready (1844-1904) told his audience that when they see a newsboy hawking papers they should see him as a symptom of poverty and urban malaise. Augustus Edwin Mulready A London Newsboy.jpg
The paintings of London artist Augustus Edwin Mulready (1844–1904) told his audience that when they see a newsboy hawking papers they should see him as a symptom of poverty and urban malaise.

News butcher

"News butchers" worked on passenger railroads selling newspapers, candy, and cigars to the passengers. Thomas Edison was a news butcher in his youth, but he lost that job after he set a car on fire due to white phosphorus igniting in a chemistry set he had onboard. [13] : 22  Walt Disney worked as news butcher on the Missouri Pacific Railway as a teenager, and his memories of that experience influenced his design of the Disneyland Railroad. [14] : 35–40, 222 

Ireland

Stephanie Rains examines the newsboy as a characteristic presence on Irish streets in the early twentieth century and also necessary last link in the chain of media production and distribution. He was little touched by mechanization—the newspaper vending box came later. Publishers depended on boys as young as eleven years old to sell copies, especially in downtown areas. Newsboys were very visible and audible figures on Irish city streets and were themselves the subject of frequent newspaper stories which typically represented them as exemplars of the urban working classes for middle-class readers. [15]

Labor actions and strikes

Newsboys struck for better pay and working conditions multiple times: 1884, [16] 1886, [17] 1887, [18] 1889, [19] and in May 1898. [20]

In the newsboys' strike of July 1899, many New York newsboys refused to deliver major newspapers, and asked the public to boycott them. The press run of Joseph Pulitzer's World fell by nearly two-thirds. After two hectic weeks, the papers capitulated. After a two-week strike, papers did not lower their prices, but did agree to buy back all unsold papers, and the union disbanded. [21] [22]

The New York newsboys' strike of 1899 inspired later strikes, including the Butte, Montana, Newsboys Strike of 1914, [23] and a 1920s strike in Louisville, Kentucky. [24] Chicago newsboys faced an uphill battle to gain better incomes, particularly during the 1912 media strike. Attempts to unionize were sporadic and undercut by intimidation and sometimes violent counter-responses by the publishers. [25]

According to Jon Bekken:

Documented newsboy strikes took place in Boston (1901, 1908); Chicago (1912); Cleveland (1934); Des Moines (1922); Detroit (1877); Kansas City, Kansas (1947); Lexington, Kentucky (1899); Minneapolis (1918); Mobile (1942); New York City (1886, 1890, 1893, 1898, 1899, 1908, 1918, 1922, 1941, 1948); Oakland (1928); Portland, Oregon (1914); St. Louis (1945); San Jose, California (2000); and Seattle (1917). [26]

During 1933 to 1935, the New Deal agency, the National Recovery Administration (NRA), promulgated a newspaper industry code that restricted juvenile employment in order to help unemployed adults. The restrictions expired when the Supreme Court in 1935 struck down the NRA as unconstitutional. [27]

Images

"Boys Selling Newspapers on Brooklyn Bridge" by Lewis Hine, 1908 February 23rd 1908 Boys Selling Newspapers on Brooklyn Bridge.jpg
"Boys Selling Newspapers on Brooklyn Bridge" by Lewis Hine, 1908

American photographer Lewis Hine crusaded against child labor in America in the early 20th century by taking photographs that exposed frightful conditions, especially in factories and coal mines. He photographed youths who worked in the streets as well, but his photographs of them did not depict another appalling form of dangerous child labor or immigrant poverty, for they were not employees. There were working on their own as independent young entrepreneurs and Hine captures the image of comradeship, youthful masculinity and emerging entrepreneurship. The symbolic newsboy became an iconic image in discourses about childhood, ambition and independence. [28]

Recent developments

In Wales, it was announced in July 2011 that Media Wales, publisher of the Western Mail and South Wales Echo, would no longer employ newspaper vendors in Cardiff city center. A spokesman said distribution of the newspaper by the vendors cost more than the newspaper received in return. [29]

French newspaper hawker, 1899 PetitJournal1899.jpg
French newspaper hawker, 1899

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Whisnant, David E. (1972). "Selling the Gospel News, or: The Strange Career of Jimmy Brown the Newsboy". Journal of Social History. 5 (3): 269–309. doi:10.1353/jsh/5.3.269. JSTOR   3786658.
  2. 1 2 3 Priscilla Ferguson Clement, Jacqueline S. Reiner, eds., Boyhood in America: An Encyclopedia, 2001, ISBN   1-57607-540-0, s.v. 'Newsboys', p. 471
  3. ↑ Burgan, p. 4
  4. ↑ Goodman, Matthew (2010). The Sun and the Moon: The Remarkable True Account of Hoaxers, Showmen, Dueling Journalists, and Lunar Man-Bats in Nineteenth-Century New York. p. 31. ISBN   978-0786726967.
  5. 1 2 "Newsies". digitalhistory.uh.edu.
  6. ↑ (nd) Child labor in America 1908-1912: Photographs of Lewis W. Hine. Retrieved 17 June 2007. - See "Newsies".
  7. ↑ David Nasau, (1999) p. 9.
  8. ↑ Postol, Todd Alexander (1997). "Creating the American Newspaper Boy: Middle-Class Route Service and Juvenile Salesmanship in the Great Depression". Journal of Social History. 31 (2): 327–345. doi:10.1353/jsh/31.2.327. JSTOR   3789942.
  9. ↑ Postol, Todd Alexander (2000). "Masculine Guidance: Boys, Men, and Newspapers, 1930—1939". Enterprise & Society. 1 (2): 355–390. doi:10.1093/es/1.2.355. JSTOR   23699777.
  10. ↑ Stepenoff, Bonnie (April 2010). "Child Savers and St. Louis Newsboys, 1896–1948". Missouri Historical Review. 104 (3): 125–37.
  11. ↑ Hexter, Maurice Beck (1919). The Newsboys of Cincinnati.
  12. ↑ Rarick, Ronald D. (2000). "Seeing poor children: Three artists' views". Journal of Children and Poverty. 6 (2): 85–98. doi:10.1080/713675960. S2CID   143850909.
  13. ↑ Amendola, Dana (2015). All Aboard: The Wonderful World of Disney Trains (1st ed.). Disney Editions. ISBN   978-1-4231-1714-8.
  14. ↑ Broggie, Michael (2014). Walt Disney's Railroad Story: The Small-Scale Fascination That Led to a Full-Scale Kingdom (4th ed.). The Donning Company Publishers. ISBN   978-1-57864-914-3.
  15. ↑ Rains, Stephanie (2016). "City streets and the city edition: Newsboys and newspapers in early twentieth-century Ireland". Irish Studies Review. 24 (2): 142–158. doi:10.1080/09670882.2016.1153239. S2CID   147746559.
  16. ↑ "Newsboys strike", New York Times. October 14, 1884.
  17. ↑ "Newsboys indulge in a strike", New York Times. March 30, 1886.
  18. ↑ "Strike of newsboys" [ permanent dead link ], New York Times. January 29, 1887.
  19. ↑ "Newsboys on strike: Many fights and two arrested by police", New York Times. August 13, 1889.
  20. ↑ "Newsboys Strike for Better Terms", New York Herald. July 21, 1899
  21. ↑ David Nasaw, Children of the City: At Work and at Play (1965) pp 167-77, online free to borrow
  22. ↑ David Nasaw, "Dirty-Faced Davids & The Twin Goliaths" American Heritage 36.3 (1985): 42-47.
  23. ↑ Peavy, L. and Smith, U. (1999) Frontier Children. University of Oklahoma Press. p.112.
  24. ↑ Reinier, J.S., Ferguson, P. and West, E. (2001) Boyhood in America: An encyclopedia. ABC-Clio Inc.
  25. ↑ Bekken, Jon (2000). "Crumbs from the Publishers' Golden Tables: The plight of the Chicago newsboy". Media History. 6: 45–57. doi:10.1080/713685375. S2CID   161435121.
  26. ↑ Jon Bekken, "Newsboy Strikes." in Encyclopedia of Strikes in American History (2009): 609-619.
  27. ↑ Todd Alexander Postol, "Hearing the Voices of Working Children" Labor's Heritage (1989) 1#3 pp 4-19.
  28. ↑ Oenone Kubie, "Reading Lewis Hine's Photography of Child Street Labour, 1906–1918." Journal of American Studies 50.4 (2016): 873-897.
  29. ↑ "Paul Linford, "Welsh Dailies Abandon City Centre Street Sales,"". Holdthefrontpage.co.uk. Retrieved 2014-04-26.
Newspaper hawkers in Mexico City, Mexico, March 2010. Newspaper Vendors in Mexico City March 2010.jpg
Newspaper hawkers in Mexico City, Mexico, March 2010.

Further reading

"The Weary Newsboy" by New York City artist James Henry Cafferty (1819-1869) The Weary Newsboy by James Henry Cafferty.jpg
"The Weary Newsboy" by New York City artist James Henry Cafferty (1819–1869)
  1. ↑ Katz, Wendy Jean (2007). "Fancy Painting, Street Children, and the Fast Men of the Pavé". Nineteenth Century Studies. 21: 85–126. doi:10.2307/45196988. JSTOR   45196988.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Randolph Hearst</span> American newspaper publisher (1863–1951)

William Randolph Hearst Sr. was an American newspaper publisher and politician who developed the nation's largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications. His flamboyant methods of yellow journalism in violation of ethics and standards influenced the nation's popular media by emphasizing sensationalism and human-interest stories. Hearst entered the publishing business in 1887 with Mitchell Trubitt after being given control of The San Francisco Examiner by his wealthy father, Senator George Hearst.

In journalism, yellow journalism and the yellow press are American newspapers that use eye-catching headlines and sensationalized exaggerations for increased sales. The English term is chiefly used in the US. In the United Kingdom, a similar term is tabloid journalism. Other languages, e.g. Russian, sometimes have terms derived from the American term. Yellow journalism emerged in the intense battle for readers by two newspapers in New York City in 1890s. It was not common in other cities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1890s</span> Decade of the Gregorian calendar

The 1890s was a decade of the Gregorian calendar that began on January 1, 1890, and ended on December 31, 1899. In American popular culture, the decade would later be nostalgically referred to as the "Gay Nineties". In the British Empire, the 1890s epitomised the late Victorian period.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paperboy</span> Boy who delivers newspapers

A paperboy is someone – often an older child or adolescent – who distributes printed newspapers to homes or offices on a regular route, usually by bicycle or automobile. In Western nations during the heyday of print newspapers during the early 20th century, this was often a young person's first job, perhaps undertaken before or after school. This contrasts with the newsboy or newspaper hawker, now extremely rare in Western nations, who would sell newspapers to passersby on the street, often with very vocal promotion. They were common when multiple daily papers in every city – as many as 50 in New York City alone – competed.

<i>Newsies</i> 1992 film by Kenny Ortega

Newsies is a 1992 American historical musical drama film produced by Walt Disney Pictures. Directed by choreographer Kenny Ortega from a screenplay written by the writing team of Bob Tzudiker and Noni White, it is loosely based on the New York City newsboys' strike of 1899. Featuring twelve original songs by Alan Menken with lyrics by Jack Feldman and an underscore by J. A. C. Redford, it stars Christian Bale, Bill Pullman, Ann-Margret, and Robert Duvall.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of American newspapers</span>

The history of American newspapers begins in the early 18th century with the publication of the first colonial newspapers. American newspapers began as modest affairs—a sideline for printers. They became a political force in the campaign for American independence. Following independence the first amendment to U.S. Constitution guaranteed freedom of the press. The Postal Service Act of 1792 provided substantial subsidies: Newspapers were delivered up to 100 miles for a penny and beyond for 1.5 cents, when first class postage ranged from six cents to a quarter.

Child labor in the United States was a common phenomenon across the economy in the 19th century. Outside agriculture, it gradually declined in the early 20th century, except in the South which added children in textile and other industries. Child labor remained common in the agricultural sector until compulsory school laws were enacted by the states. In the North state laws prohibited work in mines and later in factories. A national law was passed in 1916 but it was overturned by the Supreme Court in 1918. A 1919 law was also overturned. In the 1920s an effort to pass a constitutional amendment failed, because of opposition from the South and from Catholics. Outside of farming child labor was steadily declining in the 20th century and the New Deal in 1938 finally ended child labor in factories and mines. Child labor has always been a factor in agriculture and that continues into the 21st century.

The London plan is a largely antiquated system of newspaper distribution in which the paper carriers buy newspapers in bulk from the publisher and sell the papers to the reading public for a profit. The plan was imported from London to the United States by Benjamin Day in the nineteenth century.

Newsboy or news boy may refer to:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Newsboys' strike of 1899</span> American campaign

The newsboys' strike of 1899 was a U.S. youth-led campaign to facilitate change in the way that Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst's newspapers compensated their force of newsboys or newspaper hawkers. The strikers demonstrated across New York City for several days, effectively stopping circulation of the two papers, along with the news distribution for many New England cities. The strike lasted two weeks, causing Pulitzer's New York World to decrease its circulation from 360,000 papers sold per day to 125,000. Although the price of papers was not lowered, the strike was successful in forcing the World and Journal to offer full buybacks to their sellers, thus increasing the amount of money that newsboys received for their work. This event inspired the 1992 movie musical, Newsies, which was adapted for Broadway on March 29, 2012.

NLRB v. Hearst Publications, 322 U.S. 111 (1944), was an administrative law case heard before the United States Supreme Court. The case concerned the meaning of the term "employees" in the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).

The Baxter Street Dudes was a New York City teenage street gang, consisting of former newsboys and bootblacks, who ran the Grand Duke's Theatre from the basement of a dive bar on Baxter Street in Manhattan during the 1870s. Led by founder Baby-Face Willie, gang members operated the Grand Duke's Theatre and established the venue as their headquarters. Members of the Baxter Street Dudes wrote and performed plays, musicals and variety shows which were enjoyed by other street toughs and slummers throughout the city. The theater house eventually became a popular underworld hangout, from which the gang found financial success.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Nasaw</span> American historian (born 1945)

David Nasaw is an American author, biographer and historian who specializes in the cultural, social and business history of early 20th Century America. Nasaw is on the faculty of the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, where he is the Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. Professor of History.

<i>The Evening World</i>

The Evening World was a newspaper that was published in New York City from 1887 to 1931. It was owned by Joseph Pulitzer, and served as an evening edition of the New York World.

The 1962–1963 New York City newspaper strike was a strike action within the newspaper industry of New York City which ran from December 8, 1962 until March 31, 1963, lasting for a total of 114 days. Besides protesting low wages, the unions were resisting automation of the printing presses.

<i>Newsboys Home</i> 1938 film by Harold Young

Newsboys' Home is a 1938 crime film that starred Jackie Cooper and The Little Tough Guys.

<i>Newsies</i> (musical) American musical by Alan Menken, Jack Feldman, and Harvey Fierstein

Newsies: The Musical is a musical with music by Alan Menken, lyrics by Jack Feldman, and a book by Harvey Fierstein. The show is based on the 1992 musical film of the same name, which in turn was inspired by the real-life Newsboys Strike of 1899 in New York City, with Fierstein's script adapted from the film's screenplay by Bob Tzudiker and Noni White.

<i>Seattle Union Record</i>

The Seattle Union Record was a union-owned newspaper edited by Harry Ault. The paper was published weekly from February 20, 1900 to April 2, 1918 and was published daily from April 24, 1918 until it discontinued publication in 1928. In its own words, the newspaper was "Published for Principle and Not for Profit".

The Chicago Newspaper strike of 1912 was a strike that ran from May until November. It was primarily held by the pressmen, and supported by other unions such as the stereotypers. The pressmen union attempted to bring attention to conglomerate newspaper publishers' attempts at breaking up printing unions.

Dziennik Ludowy (People's Daily) (1907- 1925) was a Polish-language socialist daily newspaper published in Chicago. Established by a young generation of immigrant activists, it presented left-wing beliefs, and its chief editors were M. Sokołowski and H. Anielewski.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.