EOTO 1 Institutions and Publications

 Benjamin Day’s New York Sun

The newspaper revolution in New York would not be the same without Benjamin Day. Born April 10, 1810 in West Springfield, Massachusetts, Day didn't wait long to get involved into the printing industry. At the ripe age of 14, Benjamin began as a printing apprentice for the Springfield Republican. 

At 21, after moving to NYC, Day was up and running in his new printing business. The New York Sun was founded on September 3, 1833, a couple of years after his move to the city. 

Dave Ramsey, an old colleague of Benjamin’s had always dreamed of a penny paper and would talk about it all the time. He never did anything about it though. The Cholera Depression forced Day to get creative however, so Benjamin turned Ramsay’s envision into a reality. 

What Separated this Paper from the Others? 

This wasn’t just any average paper at the time. The New York Sun was sort of legendary and took huge risks among big competitors. 

By largely undercutting all other papers, Day sold his paper for only a penny. Rather than delivering their papers on a timely schedule, these papers were sold on the street. Now people could get their news cheap and easy on their way to work. 

Sure the profit margin wasn’t as large as other papers… but Benjamin was selling newspapers like hot cakes, and no one could keep up. Due to the high demand, advertisers were itching to get there brands on the Sun’s pages. 

Rather than his profit coming from newspaper sales, Benjamin day was getting most of his income from advertisers that paid a cent a line, which added up quickly. This first successful daily penny paper was selling more papers than anyone, every day!

It wasn’t just the fact that this cheap paper was pushing out news daily, the content was just as revolutionary as the distribution. This was the first newspaper to include topics other than politics and war.

 Now readers could learn about local crimes, personal events, suicides, deaths, divorces and more.  This wasn’t just news about famous people, but also everyday people doing extraordinary things. Newspaper was now playing an integral part in the community. 

Another groundbreaking thing about this news outlet was how they acquired their news. Most newspapers would get news written in from their readers. This took too long and wasn’t ideal in relying on customers for overall coverage. 

Instead, Benjamin Day was the first to hire New York Sun reporters that went out into the community to eavesdrop and get their own news. 

This historical newspaper had to come to a halt, after all of Day’s hard work. He sold “The Sun” to his brother in law, Moses Yale Beach, for $40,000 in 1838 ($1.2 million equivalent today).

Benjamin Day didn’t stop with only having had one creation though. He did go on to launch another paper, titled “True Sun” and a magazine called, “Brother Jonathan.”

Benjamin Day ended his legacy on earth and passed away on December 21, 1889 at the age of 79.

Reasons for Taking this class

Journalism History Class