What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?
Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter (April 3, 1772).
“Country Traders … may be supplied with all Kinds of Writing-Paper … at any Store in Town.”
John Fleeming published the Boston Chronicle in partnership with John Mein from 1767 to 1770. That newspaper folded, in large part due to the blatant Tory sympathies espoused by Fleeming’s partner. Mein fled Boston, leaving Fleeming to oversee the business for the few months that the newspaper continued publication in his absence. With the Boston Chronicle behind him, Fleeming turned to job printing and selling stationery and writing supplies. In the April 3, 1772, edition of the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter, for instance, he advertised a “large Assortment of STATIONARY” that included “Writing Paper of all Kinds, Quills, Wax, Wafers, Ink-Chests & Stands of various Kinds, Ivory Folders, Leather Ink Bottles, Ink-Powder, and Patent Cake Ink.”
Fleeming hoped to encourage retail sales among residents of Boston who visited his shop, but he also made an appeal to “Country Traders and Shopkeepers” looking to make wholesale purchases. He promised them that they “may be supplied with all Kinds of Writing-Paper by the Ream, as Cheap as at any Store in Town.” Fleeming competed with a number of stationers who imported paper from England, especially after Parliament repealed the duties on paper and other items and merchants called an end to the nonimportation agreement adopted to achieve that goal. Eager to maximize revenues, Fleeming aimed to attract wholesale as well as retail customers.
In so doing, he resorted to a familiar marketing strategy, one adopted by merchants who sold a variety of imported goods ranging from textiles to housewares to hardware to patent medicines. Some advertised that they filled retail orders sent from colonizers in the countryside. Others did not work directly with consumers outside of Boston, but that did not mean that they neglected to capture wider markets as wholesalers. Merchants frequently assured “Country Traders” that they offered the best bargains, allowing them to generate sales by passing along the savings to their customers. By modern standards, Fleeming’s advertisement may not appear flashy, but that does not mean that it lacked a sound marketing strategy in the eighteenth century.
What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?
Supplement to the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter (November 7, 1771).
“A New MEDICINAL DISCOVERY, of the UTMOST CONSEQUENCE to MANKIND; known abroad by the Name of, VELNOS’ Vegetable SYRUP: An acknowledged Specific in all Venereal and Scorbutic Cases”
This plant-based medication is proposed as a safer alternative to the conventional treatment of the day, which involved exposing patients to mercury in the hopes that it would induce them to expel the disease through bodily secretions. Despite the known dangers of mercury, and its unsavory side effects, it was still widely accepted in the medical community in the late eighteenth century. The advertisement claims that in addition to acting as a substitute for mercury, it also “repairs the havock it has made.” To emphasize the legitimacy of this alternative treatment to any skeptics, the advertisement describes the rigorous testing and clinical trials that the syrup underwent in Paris. Another selling point is the substance’s use in the relief of a number of ailments “arising from a foulness of the blood” not limited to venereal cases.
J. Burrows, the physician who claimed to be the “sole Proprietor of this remedy,” appears to have been one of several enterprising men who began selling their own version of vegetable syrup under the same name throughout the colonies. A certain Isaac Swainson took issue with this and denounced these imposters in his 1792 work, An Account of Cures by Velnos’ Vegetable Syrup, mentioning Burrows and others by name and assuring the public that “the Genuine Syrup of De Velnos can be prepared only by me.” This reveals that a certain level of competition between purveyors of this cure must have existed which prompted Swainson to put such a warning in writing, either out of concern for prospective patients or, more likely, to discredit his competition.
A 1789 etching published in London depicts angry physicians armed with scalpels and mercury who are unable to contend with Velnos’ Syrup being sold by Swainson, who stands smiling, surrounded by bottles of his cure. The cartoon also includes a reference to the number of people allegedly cured in 1788 and 1789 demonstrating that the syrup remained popular in the subsequent decades.
Thomas Rowlandson, Mercury and His Advocates Defeated, or Vegetable Intrenchment (London: S.W. Fores, 1789). Courtesy British Museum.
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ADDITIONAL COMMENTARY: Carl Robert Keyes
This advertisement lists “J. BURROWS, M.D.” as the “Sole Proprietor of this Remedy,” yet he did not market it in Boston. Instead, a local agent, John Fleeming, hawked Velnos’ Vegetable Syrup to prospective patients in Boston and its hinterlands in the fall of 1771. The lengthy advertisement focused primarily on the patent medicine, but a brief note at the end informed readers that Fleeming also sold “Cheap Books and Stationary” at his shop “opposite the South Door of the Town-House.” In another advertisement in the same issue of the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter, Fleeming announced his plans to publish the “NEW-ENGLAND REGISTER, With an Almanack for 1772” in December.
Fleeming was well known in Boston as a printer, publisher, and bookseller, especially because he partnered with John Mein in publishing the Boston Chronicle, a newspaper that unapologetically expressed a Tory perspective and mocked Patriot leaders, from 1767 to 1770. Mein took the lead in that enterprise and caused so much controversy that he fled Boston for his own safety in 1769. Fleeming continued publishing the newspaper for only a few months. He turned his attention to other projects, including publishing an account of the trials that followed the Boston Massacre.
Like most colonial printers, Fleeming supplemented his revenues by selling “Cheap Books and Stationary.” A good number of printers also listed patent medicines in their advertisements, making those remedies the most common goods not directly associated with the books trades to appear in their newspaper notices. Eighteenth-century consumers would not have considered it out of the ordinary that Fleeming sold patent medicines, though the length and detail of the advertisement for Velnos’ Vegetable Syrup far exceeded the attention printers usually devoted to such nostrums. They tended to carry popular potions that needed no further explanation, but Fleeming and his associates apparently believed that prospective customers would be more likely to purchase this “New MEDICINAL DISCOVERY” when they learned more about it. The prospects for increased sales justified the greater expense for such a lengthy advertisement.
What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago this week?
Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter (September 26, 1771).
“Bickerstaff’s Boston ALMANCK, For the Year 1772.”
With the arrival of fall in 1771 newspaper advertisements for almanacs for 1772 became more numerous and more extensive. Starting in August and continuing into September, printers announced that they would soon publish popular and favorite titles, but by the beginning of October their notices indicated that consumers and retailers could purchase almanacs. To encourage sales, some printers composed advertisements that previewed the contents of their almanacs.
John Fleeming followed this progression in his marketing efforts. On August 15, he placed an advertisement in the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter to inform readers that “Bickerstaff’s Almanack For the Year 1772, Will be published in September.” He declared that it would “contain many excellent Receipts, interesting Stories, curious Anecdotes, [and] useful Tables” in addition to “the usual Calculations.” On September 26, he placed a much lengthier advertisement, one that extended two-thirds of a column, to announcement that the almanac was “THIS DAY PUBLISHED.” Fleeming devoted most of the advertisement to the contents, hoping to incite curiosity and interest.
As promised, the almanac included “USEFUL RECEIPTS,” with a headline and separate section that listed many of them. Buyers gained access to a recipe for “A Cure for the Cramp,” “Dr. Watkins famous Family Medicine,” “An excellent remedy for all Nervous Complaints,” and “A cure for the Scurvy,” among others. In terms of “interesting Stories [and] curious Anecdotes,” readers would be entertained or edified by an “Account of a remarkable fight betwixt a sailor and a large Shark,” “A description of the wonderful Man Fish, with a print of the same,” and “A caution to Juries in criminal causes, and the uncertainty of circumstantial evidence shewen in two very remarkable causes.” The “useful Table” included “Distances of the most remarkable Towns on the Continent, with the intermediate Miles,” “A Compendium Table of Interest,” and a “Table of the value of Sterling Money, at Halifax, Nova-Scotia, the different parts of New-England, New-York and Philadelphia.” Among the “usual Calculations,” Fleeming listed “Sun’s rising and setting,” “Full and changes of the Moon,” and the “Time of High Water at Boston, twice a day.” He also promoted several poems and “A few good Husbandry Lessons.”
Fleeming faced competition from other printers. Immediately above his advertisement, a consortium of Boston printers placed their own notice for “The NORTH-AMERICAN’S ALMANACK: Being, the GENTLEMENS and LADIES DIARY For the Year of Christian Æra 1772” with calculations by Samuel Stearns. That advertisement, a fraction of the length of the one placed by Fleeming, listed some of its contents, but did not go into as much detail. For consumers who did not already have a strong loyalty to one title over others, Fleeming likely considered his extensive list of the contents of his almanac effective in winning them over and well worth the investment.
What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?
Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter (August 15, 1771).
“Bickerstaff’s Almanack For the Year 1772, Will be published in September next.”
Even though the middle of August 1771 was early, John Fleeming apparently determined that it was not too early to begin marketing “Bickerstaff’s Almanack For the Year 1772.” In an advertisement in the supplement that accompanied the August 15 edition of the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter, Fleeming announced that the popular almanac “Will be published in September next.” He did not even have copies ready for sale, but he gave both consumers and retailers advance notice about when the almanac would be available to purchase. Doing so made sense in the crowded marketplace of Boston’s printers who annually published an array of almanacs and competed for customers. Fleeming encouraged brand loyalty by letting readers who preferred “Bickerstaff’s Almanack” know that they could soon acquire an edition for the coming year. He also attempted to incite anticipation among consumers, encouraging them to scan the pages of the public prints for further updates.
Like other printers who advertised the almanacs they published, Fleeming provided a brief overview of the contents. It would contain “the usual Calculations” as well as “many excellent Receipts, interesting Stories, curious Anecdotes, useful Tables, &c. &c. &c.” By concluding with the eighteenth-century abbreviation for et cetera (and repeating it), the printer hinted at the variety of informative and entertaining items that would be included. He may have also intended for that portion of the advertisement to provoke curiosity and anticipation about what might be included among those recipes, stories, anecdotes, and tables. Printers often revealed those details in longer advertisements, but Fleeming might have also hoped that prospective customers would visit his shop to peruse the almanac to learn more after it went to press.
For the moment, Fleeming’s advertisement stood out for being the earliest and only one for an almanac in the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston News-Letter and other newspapers printed in Boston, but soon enough that would no longer be the case. With the arrival of fall, more and more advertisements for almanacs would appear, a sign of the changing seasons. Fleeming was ready to serve loyal readers and prospective customers.
What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?
Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter (April 19, 1771).
“This Sermon contains a summary Account of Mr. WHITEFIELD’S Life.”
When George Whitefield, one of the most prominent ministers associated with the eighteenth-century religious revivals now known as the Great Awakening, died in Newburyport, Massachusetts, on September 30, 1770, news quickly spread. Accounts of his death first appeared in newspapers published in Boston, radiating out to newspapers in other cities and towns. Almost immediately, printers, booksellers, and others began marketing commemorative items in memory of Whitefield. Commodification of the minister’s death became part of the mourning ritual.
From New Hampshire to South Carolina, newspapers carried advertisements for books, broadsides, and poems. Readers encountered those advertisements for nearly three months before they tapered off. After another three months, advertisements for new Whitefield memorabilia began appearing in colonial newspapers, this time for items related to reactions to the minister’s death on the other side of the Atlantic. On March 21, 1771, the New-York Journal carried an advertisement for “THE celebrated Sermon preached … on the Death of the late Rev. Mr. George Whitefield … By JOHN WESLEY.” John Holt, printer of the New-York Journal, took to press the first American edition of Wesley’s funeral sermon.
Nearly a month later, John Fleeming advertised and published another edition in Boston. He ran an advertisement in the April 19 edition of the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter. Unlike Holt, Fleeming noted that his edition included “a summary Account of Mr. WHITEFIELD’S Life extracted from his own Journals,” an elaboration on the content intended to entice consumers. This endeavor merited its own advertisement separate from another notice that Fleeming ran to promote stationery and books, including an account of the trials of the soldiers involved in the Boston Massacre, that the printer sold at his shop on King Street.
Most public figures disappeared from colonial newspapers not long after accounts of their deaths. Printers continued coverage of Whitefield, on the other hand, for many months, publishing both news accounts and advertisements for memorabilia. Commemoration and commodification occurred simultaneously as Whitefield continued to appear in the colonial press more than half a year after his death.
What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?
South-Carolina and American General Gazette (March 26, 1771).
“The Publisher will give two Copies gratis to such as shall collect One Dozen of Subscribers.”
When John Fleeming of Boston set about publishing what he billed as “The first Bible ever printed in America” he advertised widely in the colonial press. He launched his marketing efforts in newspapers published in Boston and other towns in New England, but over time his subscription notices also ran in newspapers in far distant cities. One version appeared in the March 26, 1771, edition of the South-Carolina and American General Gazette. Though lengthy, it was not as extensive as some variants of the advertisement. It did not include a testimonial from George Whitefield concerning an earlier English edition that incorporated “Annotations and Parallel Scriptures, By the late Rev. SAMUEL CLARKE.” Fleeming intended to include the same supplementary material in his American edition.
In order to make this enterprise viable, Fleeming sought subscribers who reserved copies in advance. To that end, he cultivated networks of local agents. The publisher started with newspaper printers who ran his advertisement, but he also encouraged others to join his efforts. He offered premiums to those who accepted his invitation. “In order to encourage Booksellers, Country Traders, &c. to promote Subscriptions for this grand and useful Work,” Fleeming declared, “the Publisher will give two Copies gratis to such as shall collect One Dozen of Subscribers.” Fleeming also expected these local agents to distribute copies to their subscribers and collect payment.
In addition to placing newspaper advertisements that laid out the terms of subscribing, he also printed separately subscription papers for local agents. Those “Proposal” likely included the same conditions as appeared in newspaper advertisements and Whitefield’s endorsement as well as space for subscribers to add their names. In turn, subscribers and prospective subscribers could examine the list to see the company they kept or could keep by supporting the project. Some local agents may have posted subscription papers in their shops, putting them on display before the community. The proposals also specified that “Subscribers Names will be printed.” Fleeming asked booksellers, country traders, and others interested in becoming local agents to contact him for copies of the proposals. In the version of the advertisement that ran in the South-Carolina and American General Gazette, he named Robert Wells, printer of that newspaper, in Charleston and James Johnston, printer of the Georgia Gazette, in Savannah as local agents who collected subscriptions.
Fleeming promoted this annotated “FAMILY BIBLE” as a “laudable Undertaking.” It was certainly an undertaking that required coordination with others before going to press. The publisher advertised widely and established networks of local agents. To increase the number of subscribers, he offered premiums to local agents who met the threshold of getting commitments from at least a dozen subscribers. Fleeming did not envision this endeavor as a Boston edition for residents of Boston but instead as an American edition for readers and consumers throughout the colonies.
What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?
Boston Evening-Post (January 21, 1771).
“The Trial of … Soldiers in His Majesty’s 29th Regiment of Foot.”
On January 14, 1771, John Fleeming announced that he would publish a pamphlet documenting the trial of the soldiers prosecuted for “the Murder of Crispus Attucks, Samuel Gray, Samuel Maverick, James Caldwell, & Patrick Carr, on the Evening of the 5th March 1770,” an event now known as the Boston Massacre. John Adams defended the soldiers in court, winning acquittals for six of them. The other two, convicted of manslaughter for deliberately firing into the crowd, received reduced sentences after pleading benefit of clergy. They avoided the death penalty in favor of branding on the thumbs in open court. When Fleeming, a Tory sympathizer and former partner in publishing the discontinued Boston Chronicle, announced his plan to publish an account of the trial, Thomas and John Fleet, printers of the Boston Evening-Post, placed their own advertisement for “A short Narrative of the horrid MASSACRE” immediately below Fleeming’s notice. Perhaps suspicious of what might appear in Fleeming’s pamphlet, the Fleets offered an antidote.
In the next issue of the Boston Evening-Post, Fleeming inserted a more extensive advertisement to proclaim that he had “JUST PUBLISHED” an account of “The Trial of … Soldiers in His Majesty’s 29th Regiment of Foot; For the MURDER of” the five men who died during and soon after the Boston Massacre. The printer noted that this account had been “Taken in short Hand by John Hodgdon” and furthermore it was “Published by Permission of the Court.” Perhaps to alleviate lingering suspicions about how much commentary he might insert or otherwise attempt to further shape the narrative in favor of the soldiers, Fleeming included a note near the conclusion of his advertisement. “In this Publication,” he declared, “great Care has been taken to render the Evidence as accurate as possible, by comparing Mr. Hodgdon’s Copy with other Minutes taken at the Trial.” Fleeming also listed the various contents of the pamphlet, from “The Indictments against the Prisoners” to “the Verdict returned by the Jury.” The pamphlet provided a complete account of events associated with the trial, Fleeming assured the public.
This advertisement met with different treatment by the Fleets compared to Fleeming’s previous advertisement. They placed it in the lower right corner of the first page, the only advertisement on that page. In addition, the advertisement listed both Fleeming and “the Printers hereof” as sellers of the pamphlet. Apparently the Fleets, who tended to favor the patriot cause, though not as vociferously as Benjamin Edes and John Gill in the Boston Gazette, found that the pamphlet accurately rendered the events of the trial. They even saw an opportunity to generate revenues at their own printing office by retailing copies. They already encouraged participation in the commodification of events related to the imperial crisis, having marketed “A short Narrative of the horrid MASSACRE.” Even as they endorsed Fleeming’s new publication, they also continued to run advertisements for that earlier pamphlet elsewhere in the newspaper. Interest in Fleeming’s new pamphlet about the trial had the potential to reinvigorate demand for an account of the events that led to the trial.
What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?
Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter (December 7, 1770).
“The late Rev. and pious Mr. Whitefield favoured the World a few years ago with his opinion of this work.”
In December 1770, John Fleeming distributed subscription notices for a publication that he described as “The First BIBLE ever printed in America.” The proposed work included “the OLD and NEW TESTAMENTS” as well as “Annotations and Parallel Scriptures By the late Rev. SAMUEL CLARK.” Fleeming outlined the conditions, a standard part of any subscription notice, providing an overview of the type, paper, and publication schedule. He also offered premiums to “Booksellers, Country Traders,” and others who collected at least one dozen subscriptions on his behalf and later distributed the bibles to the subscribers. In addition, Fleeming informed prospective subscribers that their names “will be printed” among the ancillary materials that accompanied the bible, thus testifying to their commitment to the project and their role in making it possible.
Yet Fleeming devoted the greatest portion of his subscription notice to an innovative marketing strategy. He included a lengthy testimonial from George Whitefield, one of the most prominent ministers associated with the eighteenth-century religious revivals now known as the Great Awakening. Fleeming noted that the “pious Mr. Whitefield favoured the World a few years ago with his opinion of this work, and a character of the Author,” Samuel Clark, “in a preface which he prefixed to an edition then publishing.” Fleeming then quoted extensively from Whitefield, filling almost an entire column. Indeed, the entire subscription notice filled two of three columns on the first page of the December 7 edition of the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Weekly News-Letter.
This was yet another instance of printers and booksellers seeking to capitalize on Whitefield’s death a few months earlier on September 30. Since that time, newspaper printers published a steady stream of articles about the minister’s death and reactions throughout the colonies. Even as those news items slowed down, they continued to print and reprint poems that eulogized Whitefield. Almost as soon as the public received news of the minister’s death, printers and booksellers began hawking books and hymnals written by Whitefield as well as commemorative items that memorialized the minister. Along with publishing poems in his memory, the commodification of Whitefield’s death continued after news reached even the most distant colonies. Mobilizing the deceased minister’s preface from another edition in order to deliver a posthumous testimonial in a subscription notice that began circulating two months after his death was another means of combining outlets for expressing grief and opportunities to generate revenues.
What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?
Boston Chronicle (June 21, 1770).
“Desires that all Persons, who have any Accounts open with him, will settle them.”
This is the last advertisement from the Boston Chronicle that will be featured by the Adverts 250 Project. Regular readers may remember that last month the project noted its final advertisement from the Georgia Gazette, a publication no longer included because copies of that newspaper printed after May 1770 have not survived. In contrast, the Boston Chronicle, the first newspaper published twice a week in New England, will no longer be featured because it ceased publication on Monday, June 25, 1770. The America’s Historical Newspapers database does not include that final edition. Instead, it ends with the penultimate issue from Thursday, June 21.
John Mein and John Fleeming (as their names appeared in the colophon) commenced publication of the Boston Chronicle in December 1767. In his monumental History of Printing in America (1810), Isaiah Thomas remarks that during the newspaper’s first year of publication it “grew daily into reputation, and had a handsome list of subscribers.”[1] Thomas also described the decline and demise of the Boston Chronicle:
“Before the close of the second year of publication, its publisher, Mein, engaged in a political warfare with those who were in opposition to the measures of the British administration. In the Chronicle he abused numbers of the most respectable whigs in Boston; and he was charged with insulting the populace. To avoid the effects of popular resentment, it became necessary for him to leave the country. Fleming continued the Chronicle during the absence of Mein, in the name of the firm; but it had fallen into disrepute, and its subscribers in rapid succession withdrew their names. Many supposed that Mein was privately assisted by the agents of government, and several circumstances rendered this opinion probable. But when the paper lost its subscribers it could neither be profitable to its publishers, nor answer the design of its supporters.”[2]
In addition to noting that subscribers “withdrew their names,” Thomas could have also reported that advertisers did not place notices in the publication. The Boston Chronicle competed with four other newspapers published in the city at the time; all of those ran significant advertising content, sometimes so much that they distributed supplements devoted entirely to paid notices. Many advertisers inserted notices in two, three, or four newspapers simultaneously, usually excluding the Boston Chronicle. In comparison to its rivals, the Boston Chronicle ran relatively few advertisements. Notices placed by its printers accounted for a disproportionate number of those that did appear within its pages. The dearth of advertising in a newspaper published in a bustling port city suggested that prospective advertisers did not consider placing their own advertisements in the Boston Chronicle a sound investment. They may have worried about how many readers would encounter their notice or they may not have desired to have their names and businesses associated with the Boston Chronicle and its reputation.
Only two advertisements appeared in the penultimate issue. John Bernard placed a notice calling on “all Persons, who have any Accounts open with him” to settle before he departed for England in the fall. The other announced an auction of “Sundry unserviceable Ordnance Stores” along with timber and stones to be auctioned in Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia, in August. Compared to other newspapers printed in the city, the Boston Chronicle has received less notice from the Adverts 250 Project. That reflects attitudes toward the newspaper in its final years of publication. Advertisers certainly did not publish notices in the Boston Chronicle to the same extent they did in its competitors.
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[1] Isaiah Thomas, The History of Printing in America: With a Biography of Printers and an Account of Newspapers (1810; New York: Weathervane Books, 1970), 264.
What was advertised in a colonial American newspaper 250 years ago today?
Boston Chronicle (April 17, 1769).
“APPRENTICES, (Wanted for the PRINTING BUSINESS).”
On April 17, 1769, John Mein and John Fleeming, the printers of the Boston Chronicle, put this advertisement searching for three young apprentices in their own newspaper. The printers wanted apprentices between thirteen and sixteen years of age. Two would work in the “PRINTING BUSINESS” and one in “BOOK BINDING.” Young men usually started apprenticeships in their teenage years and they finished in their early twenties. Bookbinding apprenticeship were not easy, according to Ed Crews. “Mastering the trade required hard work, dexterity, attention to detail, and a willingness and ability to handle painstaking tasks. By the time they became journeymen, apprentices had learned dozens of skills, including folding pages, collating them, stitching, gluing, and techniques for decorating covers.” This shows how hard it was to be a skilled bookbinder. Most apprenticeships were strenuous and not easy, but being an apprentice to a bookbinder could open new opportunities when the apprenticeship ended. Crews says, “Bookbinders with high skills, working in the right shop, could expect satisfying jobs and pay.”
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ADDITIONAL COMMENTARY: Carl Robert Keyes
Residents of Boston and its environs had access to several local newspapers in the late 1760s. The Boston Evening-Post, the Boston-Gazette, the Boston Post-Boy, and the Boston Weekly News-Letter had all been published in one form or another for several years or even decades. In December 1767, John Mein and John Fleeming commenced publication of another newspaper, the Boston Chronicle, expanding the options for disseminating both news and advertising. According to Isaiah Thomas in his monumental History of Printing in America, the Boston Chronicle was “intended to imitate in its appearance the London Chronicle.” Like their competitors, Mein and Fleeming published one issue each week. Upon successfully concluding the first year of publication, the partners altered the size of the newspaper and began distributing new issues on both Mondays and Thursdays, making it the first newspaper published twice a week in New England.
In an overview of its contents, Thomas states that the Boston Chronicle “was well supplied with essays on various subjects judiciously selected from British authors, and it contained the celebrated letters of the Pennsylvania Farmer” by John Dickinson, a series reprinted in nearly every newspaper in the colonies in late 1767 and early 1768. Thomas also notes that the newspaper “grew daily into reputation, and had a handsome list of subscribers.” He did not, however, note how successfully Mein and Fleeming attracted advertisers for their newspaper.
Examining the pages of the Boston Chronicle reveals that no matter how “handsome” the list of subscribers, the newspaper did not publish as many advertisements as any of its local competitors, especially not in 1769. This may have been due in part to Mein’s outspoken political sympathies. “Before the close of the second year of publication,” Thomas reports, Mein “engaged in a political warfare with those who were in opposition to the measures of the British administration. In the Chronicle he abused numbers of the most respectable whigs in Boston; and he was charged with insulting the populace.” Perhaps some prospective advertisers hesitated to insert their notices in the Boston Chronicle for fear of being associated with Mein’s strident politics. Others may have made principled decisions not to advertise in the pages of his newspaper. Thomas declares that as the newspaper steadily lost its subscribers “it could neither be profitable to its publishers, nor answer the design of its supporters.”[1] Again, he does not comment on the role of advertising, especially the revenues generated from paid notices, in the demise of the Boston Chronicle.
Not only did the Boston Chronicle carry fewer advertisements than its competitors, a greater proportion of those that appeared in its pages promoted Mein and Fleeming’s endeavors, including their advertisement for apprentices “Wanted for the PRINTING BUSINESS” that appeared immediately below an advertisement for a book Mein sold at the London Book-Store. Only eight advertisements ran in the April 17, 1769, edition of the Boston Chronicle, one quarter of them placed by the publishers. The advertisement for apprentices was not explicitly political, but the politics of the printers may have influenced how many other advertisements happened to appear on the same page.
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[1] Isaiah Thomas, The History of Printing in America: With a Biography of Printers and an Account of Newspapers (1810; 1874; New York: Weathervane Books, 1970), 264-265.
