What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?

“We now present the Publick with our Paper, as a Sample of what they are to expect from us in Future.”

When John Dixon and William Hunter commenced their partnership as publishers of the Virginia Gazette, they inserted a notice “To the PUBLICK” as the first item in the first column of the first page of the January 7, 1775, edition.  A month earlier, Alexander Purdie and John Dixon announced the end of their partnership, alerting readers that Dixon and Hunter would continue publishing the Virginia Gazette and that Purdie would endeavor to launch his own Virginia Gazette once he attracted enough subscribers.  The numbering for Dixon and Hunter’s newspaper continued uninterrupted, though there were some changes.  They distributed it on Saturdays instead of Thursdays.  For several years, Purdie and Dixon had published their Virginia Gazette on the same day that William Rind, Clementina Rind, and John Pinkney, in succession, took a competing Virginia Gazette to press.  Readers in Williamsburg now had access to newspapers on both Thursdays and Saturdays.  The new partners published their Virginia Gazette “early every Saturday Morning” so it could be “despatched by the several Posts on the same day” for “speedy Conveyance to the Subscribers.”

Dixon and Hunter also updated the combination masthead and colophon beyond merely changing the names of the printers.  The woodcut depicting the arms of the colony that previously adorned the Virginia Gazette now appeared within an ornate baroque border.  The new partners also incorporated a note about the services they provided: “ALL Persons may be supplied with this Paper at 12s6 a Year, and have Advertisements (of a moderate Length) inserted for 3s. the first Week, and 2s. each Week after. – Printing Work done at this Office in the neatest Manner, with Care and Expedition.”  Those lines transformed the masthead and colophon into an advertisement.  In their notice, Dixon and Hunter reported that only a few readers “have withdrawn their Subscriptions,” leaving them feeling confident about the prospects for their newspaper because they received “many Orders … from the Subscribers to this Gazette for continuing them on our List.”  At twelve shillings and six pence for an annual subscription, the price remained the same.  The price for advertising did as well.  Dixon and Hunter charged a shilling for setting type and two shillings for the space the first time an advertisement appeared and then two shillings for each subsequent insertion.

The new partners also signaled their editorial stance in their message “To the PUBLICK.”  They declared that they would published “Whatever may be sent us in Favour of LIBERTY, or for the PUBLICK GOOD … with Cheerfulness.”  In the event of “Scarcity of News,” they planned to fill the pages with “such moral Pieces, from the best Writers, as may contribute to the Improvement of Mankind in general” and, occasionally, “Pieces of Wit and Humour, that tend both to amuse and instruct.”  It went without saying that advertisements would also fill the pages of the Virginia Gazette.  Indeed, paid notices accounted for nearly half the content in Number 1222, the first issue published by Dixon and Hunter.