What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?
“SAMUEL LOUDON, Published the first Number of his News Paper, intitled the NEW-YORK PACKET.”
After spending several weeks distributing subscription proposals for a new newspaper, the New-York Packet, Samuel Loudon released the first issue on schedule on January 4, 1776. On that day, Loudon’s notice that he planned to establish the newspaper appeared for the fourth and final time in the New-York Journal. A week later, a new advertisement promoting the New-York Packet ran in the New-York Journal. The notation at the end, “23-26” (corresponding to the issue numbers), indicated that Loudon planned for that notice to run for four consecutive weeks as well.
In it, the printer announced that he “Published the first Number of his News Paper … on Thursday the fourth current, to be continued weekly.” He then provided an abbreviated version of the subscription proposal, stating that the New-York Packet “IS printed on large and good Paper, with elegant Types, almost new.” For readers who did not subscribe in time to receive that “first Number,” it was not too late to start a subscription that included the first issue and all subsequent issues. “Those who incline to encourage the Publication of it,” Loudon advised, “will be pleased to send in their Names, with Directions where to send their Papers.” Loudon had disseminated the subscription proposals widely, including in the Connecticut Journal and the Pennsylvania Gazette. He hoped to gain subscribers far beyond the city where he printed the New-York Packet. To that end, he promised that “Due Pains shall be taken in forwarding the Papers by Post-Riders, and in providing fit Persons to carry them to the Customers in this City.” That was a necessary part of satisfying both subscribers and advertisers.
Despite the fanfare around its founding, the New-York Packet last only eight months. Loudon suspended the newspaper shortly before the British occupation of New York. Unfortunately, surviving issues have not been digitized for greater access, so advertisements and other content from the New-York Packet will not appear in the Adverts 250 Project, though advertisements about the newspaper inserted in other publications testify to its short run at the beginning of the Revolutionary War.