History Camp | Empire of Ink by Alex Wright

I recently attended a webinar featuring author Alex Wright talking about his book Empire of Ink: The Printers, Rogues, and Radicals who Invented the American Newspaper published by Basic Books, an imprint of Hachette Book Group, on June 16, 2026. The talk was hosted by History Camp with Lee Wright, no relation, serving as the moderator. The last History Camp talk I attended was on The Mythmakers by John Hendrix back in June 2025, so I was overdue for another fast-paced, history-packed talk.

Alex Wright noted that American newspapers differed from British newspapers because of the difference in print culture. American print shops were family businesses that focused on ephemera rather than books. European print shops were often under the jurisdiction of a church or university and regarded as a highly trained occupation. The first newspaper was Publick Occurrences Both Forreign and Domestick, edited in Boston by “problematic figure” Benjamin Harris who wrote made-up, religiously prejudiced stories until the government shut him down a few days later. Newspapers in the American colonies were heavily censored and later taxed under the Stamp Act. However, printers often tested boundaries. Benjamin Franklin printed under the pen name Silence Dogood, and his printers network of former apprentices spread across the colonies, making him an “early media magnate”.

Another radical printers was Mary Katherine Goddard of Baltimore, owner of The Maryland Journal, who published controversial works like essays by Thomas Paine and the first printed copies of the Declaration of Independence. Her name appeared on every copy. Isaiah Thomas Sr. of Boston published The Massachusetts Spy, which was the first newspaper to report on the battles of Lexington and Concord. Thomas had fled from Boston to Worcester not long before the battle. The press and many copies of his newspapers are held at the American Antiquarian Society (AAS). (I learned about this during a virtual talk giving by AAS on March 22, 2023 about Phillis Wheatley, whose poetry was published in The Spy.) Alex Wright noted that AAS is the “premiere location of early American newspapers, most of which have not been digitized”. I really need to visit sometime!

After the revolution, the young United States encouraged the free press. The Postal Act of 1792 allowed newspapers to be mailed for up to 100 miles for a penny a paper. Newspapers were exempt from copyright, as news was considered a public good, important as one’s ability to “graze your sheep on the public square”. Since newspaper markets were small, there was little competition. The emergence of the mass media industry came during the American Civil War as reporters went to battles and tried to beat their competition by using the telegraph to transfer information. Publications like Harper’s Weekly and Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper had illustrations for the first time, reproducing images using a “stereotype”. Before the Civil War, newspapers often printed poems, sermons, or essays on the front page, while “news was crammed onto page four”. The Civil War introduced headline news at the top of the front page.

Also during this era was the start of The Cherokee Phoenix, a bilingual newspaper written in English and Cherokee. The Cherokee writing system or syllabary had been invented only a few years earlier by Sequoyah. A version of the newspaper still exists today, but it is printed only in English. Because of the prevalence of newspapers for marginalized communities and small towns, the United States had 20,000 newspapers by 1900, more than half the world’s newspapers in the world for just 5% of the world’s population. Since smaller presses did not not always have enough news to fill a paper, many bought ready print or pre-printed newsprint produced by a larger company. This was invented by Ansel Nash Kellogg of Baraboo, WI, who discovered he he could cut printing and reporting costs after the Civil War by printing the same national news in two papers: Baraboo Republic (now part of Lee Enterprises) and Wisconsin State Journal (also part of Lee Enterprises). Other newspaper owners in Wisconsin caught on, added advertisements, and created syndicates to sell stereotyped pages to press around the United States.

The newspaper industry peaked during the 20^th century due to rapid urbanization. During this time, New York City had up to fifteen daily newspapers, and 24,000 newspapers were in circulation across the United States. Circulation peaked around 1950, and then television caused the inevitable decline of the print industry. Alex Wright noted that people today often get news prom individuals on social media rather than institutions like a newspaper. The issues faced in the 19^th century, like the uneven quality of writing and lack of ethics, continue to be an issue today. Another major change is the opportunity to be trained in the industry to become a writer. Along with Benjamin Franklin, Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain), Horace Greeley, and Walt Whitman all got their start as apprenticed “printer’s devils” learning to set type and keep the press running. I enjoyed this quick and informative look at the history of newspapers in the United States, especially as it tied together what I have learned from my many visits to antique printing presses.