2. Extra! Extra! Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst vs. the newsboys!
Pandemonium in the streets! One hot summer in July 1899, thousands of
corner newsboys went on strike against the New York Journal and the New
York World. Throngs filled the streets of downtown Manhattan for two weeks
and prevented the two largest papers in the country from getting distributed.
3. They purchased the papers from the publishers and sold them as independent agents.
They were not allowed to return unsold papers!
Typically earned around 30 cents a day and worked until very late at night.
Cries of “Extra, extra!” were often heard into the morning hours as newsboys
tried to sell every last paper.
4.
5. In 1898, with the Spanish-American War increasing newspaper sales, several
publishers raised the cost of a newsboy bundle of 100 newspapers from 50₵ to 60₵.
6. The increase of an extra penny per paper gave them
less money in their pockets.
Fifteen cents fetched a dinner of soup, stew, and pie and a
family survived on ten dollars a week.
7. Although most newsies were boys, there were many newsgirls as well.
Many newsboys lived their entire lives on the streets and sold
papers late into the night.
8. Can you imagine stopping traffic in New York City?
Well, you probably don’t have the same reasons these newsies did in
1899.
Most of these kids were orphans and living on the streets.
This little bit of money helped them survive.
9. Kid Blink shut down the news to all of New York City.
Blink and thousands of his buddies went on strike at a time when the newspaper
was the ONLY media.
