Seeking Subscribers

June 21

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Essex Gazette (June 21, 1774).

“Will be published … A Weekly, Political, Commercial, and Entertaining Paper.”

On June 21, 1774, the Essex Gazette carried an advertisement for a new newspaper that would become a competitor.  At that time, Samuel Hall and Ebenezer Hall printed the first and only newspaper in Salem.  Ezekiel Russell, however, wished to test the market to see if it would support the “SALEM GAZETTE, AND NEWBURY and MARKBLEHEAD ADVERTISER: A Weekly, Political, Commercial, and Entertaining Paper.”  He proposed that the Salem Gazette would commence publication on “the first of July next … If Four Hundred Subscribers appears.”  The enterprising printer hoped that a notice in the Essex Gazette would help generate subscribers, though that was not his only means of inciting interest.  He distributed an unnumbered prospectus issue on June 24, hoping that the content and appearance would convince the public to subscribe (and advertisers to place to notices).  Similarly, Isaiah Thomas and Henry-Walter Tynges gave out free copies of the first issue of the Essex Journal, the first newspaper printed in Newburyport, seven months earlier.

Whether or not Russell managed to attract four hundred subscribers by the appointed date, he did indeed publish the Salem Gazette on July 1.  Isaiah Thomas provided a brief overview in his History of Printing in America (1810), describing it as “the second paper published in the town, … published weekly on Friday.”  The Halls distributed the Essex Gazette on Tuesdays, so newspapers now circulated twice a week in Salem (in addition to those printed in other towns that made their way there).  As Thomas further explained, “This Gazette was of short continuance; its circulation was confined to a few customers in Salem and the neighboring towns, which were inadequate to its support.”[1]  The last known issue bears the date April 21, 1775, just two days after the skirmishes at Lexington and Concord.  It was not the only newspaper printed in Massachusetts that experienced disruptions or folded when the Revolutionary War began.  The Boston Evening-Post ceased publication on April 24, 1775, whole the last known issue of the Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Post-Boy appeared on April 17, 1775.  In his advertisement, Russell stated that the Salem Gazette would be “Influenced neither by Court or Country,” indicating that it would not take a political stance in favor of patriots or loyalists as the imperial crisis intensified.  Some prospective subscribers may have remembered that Russell previously published The Censor in Boston from November 1771 through May 1772.  As Thomas recounted, that “paper was supported, during the short period of its existence by those who were in the interest of the British government.”[2]  Perhaps Russell intended for the prospectus issue to demonstrate that this newspaper would not privilege one perspective over another.

Unfortunately, advertisements from the Salem Gazette will not be featured in the Adverts 250 Project.  According to Clarence Brigham’s History and Bibliography of American Newspapers, 1690-1820, the British Museum has a complete run (with the exception of the prospectus) and various research libraries in Massachusetts have scattered issues, but the Salem Gazette has not yet been digitized for greater access.  Although colonizers in Salem had access to yet another source of news and advertising for several months in 1774 and 1775, the availability of digitized primary sources largely determines the scope of the Adverts 250 Project.

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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), 275.

[2] Thomas, History of Printing, 153.

January 6

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , , , ,

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

Norwich Packet (January 6, 1774).

“They now beg the Favour of the different Societies … That they would send the ANTHEMS, usually sung, that they may be inserted.”

Alexander Robertson, James Robertson, and John Trumull, the printers of the Norwich Packet, placed a notice in their own newspaper to announce that “an Elegant Edition of DR. WATTS’s PSALMS, with several Anthems,” was “NOW IN THE PRESS.”  It was not too late for customers to qualify for the bargain price, “no more than one Shilling and eight Pence,” as long as they reserved their copies “before they are published” and offered for sale to the general public.  In addition, “Those who take twelve Copies shall have one gratis.”  Printers sometimes offered such discounts to retailers who purchased in volume to sell again, though in this case the Robertsons and Trumbull likely had congregations in mind as well.

They certainly attempted to enlist the aid of congregations in submitting additional material to enhance the project and make their edition of Isaac Watts’s translation of The Psalms of David more attractive to prospective customers.  The Robertsons and Trumbull “now beg the Favour of the different Societies, whom they may have the Honour to serve, with this small elegant Edition: That they would send the ANTHEMS, usually sung, that they may be inserted.”  Such additions would make the books all the more useful to consumers … and marketable for the printers.  Having taken the project to press, they aimed to maximize the return on their investment by producing other items that could be bound in a single volume.  The book ultimately included eleven anthems, some of them likely contributed by members of the “different Societies” that saw the advertisement in the Norwich Packet.

The Robertsons and Trumbull also envisioned a companion to “Dr. WATTS’s PSALMS.”  They reported that “Sundry Gentlemen … expressed a Desire to have Dr. WATTS’s HYMNS printed in the same Manner as the Psalms, so that they may be bound up together.”  That does not seem to have happened, at least not in the copy of Watts’s Psalms held by the Library of Congress and reproduced in America’s Historical Imprints.  The printers likely did not take that project to press, lacking sufficient demand even though they claimed “Sundry Gentleman” suggested the idea to them.  That may have been a ploy to encourage prospective buyers to reserve copies in advance, but when they did not materialize the Robertsons and Trumbull presumably opted not to pursue publishing the hymns.

December 29

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

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

Essex Journal (December 29, 1773).

“The Number of at present, is insufficient to defrey the expence attending the Printing of a News-Paper.”

After published an inaugural issue of the Essex Journal and distributing it gratis to incite interest in the first newspaper published in Newburyport, Massachusetts, Isaiah Thomas and Henry-Walter Tinges paused publication to gather the names of subscribers.  More than three weeks after that first issue appeared on December 4, 1773, Thomas and Tinges commenced weekly publication of the Essex Journal.  In a notice on the first page, they confessed to “such Gentlemen and Ladies who wish well to this undertaking and have not yet subscribed that THEIR helping hands are wanted to bear up this Fabrick, … which if not well supported will fall, and lay the Foundation in Ruins.”  In other words, “the Number of Subscribers at present, is insufficient to defrey the expence attending the Printing of a News-Paper.”

Still, Thomas and Hinges took a chance, hoping that publishing a second and subsequent issues would convince prospective customers who intended to subscribe but had not yet done so to submit their names to the printing office.  According to the printers, some had indicated that was their plan: “we were assured that many intended to subscribe on the appearance of a second paper, and others would, at times, drop in.”  The fate of the newspaper depended on the “kindness and generosity” of subscribers.

In addition to printing a second issue to demonstrate the usefulness of the venture to readers in Newburyport and other towns in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, Thomas and Hinges adjusted the publication date to suit the needs of the community.  They distributed the inaugural issue on a Saturday, but learned that “meets not the public approbation,” so they “altered the day of publication to WEDNESDAY, which is greatly approved of.”  In turn, that required a new investment on the part of the printers: “we intend establishing a rider from Boston to this place, that we may have the most early and authentic intelligence.”  Thomas also published the Massachusetts Spy in Boston on Thursdays.  He may have originally thought that the Essex Journal could reprint content from that newspaper on Saturdays, but delivering “the most early and authentic intelligence” on Wednesdays likely meant drawing more content from the Boston Evening-Post, the Boston-Gazette, and Massachusetts Gazette and Boston Post-Boy, all of them published on Mondays.  Thomas and Hinges noted the “not very inconsiderable” expense, but also declared their commitment “to spare no pains or cost in our power to tender, in future, THIS paper as useful and entertaining as any News-Paper in America.”

Thomas and Hinges apparently gained more subscribers as well as advertisers.  They published the Essex Journal on every Wednesday in 1774 and Hinges and a new partner continued into 1775.  Then publication became sporadic in May, following the fighting at Lexington and Concord, and moved to Fridays for the remainder of the year, throughout most of 1776, before moving to Thursdays and ceasing in February 1777.