Stories of Achievement, Volume IV (of 6) - Authors and Journalists by Various
page 35 of 145 (24%)
page 35 of 145 (24%)
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making a success in business: great reputation and some confidence in
himself. The first penny paper had been started. The New York _Herald_ was making a great stir. The _Sun_ was already a profitable sheet. And now the idea occurred to Horace Greeley to start a daily paper which should have the merits of cheapness and abundant news, without some of the qualities possessed by the others. He wished to found a cheap daily paper that should be good and salutary as well as interesting. The last number of _The Log-Cabin_ announced the forthcoming _Tribune_, price one cent. The editor was probably not solvent when he conceived the scheme, and he borrowed a thousand dollars of his old friend, James Coggeshall, with which to buy the indispensable material. He began with six hundred subscribers, printed five thousand of the first number, and found it difficult to give them all away. The _Tribune_ appeared on the day set apart in New York for the funeral procession in commemoration of President Harrison, who died a month after his inauguration. It was a chilly, dismal day in April, and all the town was absorbed in the imposing pageant. The receipts during the first week were ninety-two dollars; the expenses five hundred and twenty-five. But the little paper soon caught public attention, and the circulation increased for three weeks at the rate of about three hundred a day. It began its fourth week with six thousand; its seventh week with eleven thousand. The first number contained four columns of advertisements; the twelfth, nine columns; the hundredth, thirteen columns. In a word, the success of the paper was immediate and very great. It grew a little faster than the machinery for producing it could be |
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