Person
Benjamin Day
American printer and newspaper publisher; in 1833 he started the penny press by launching the New York Sun at one cent.
Biography
Benjamin Henry Day (1810–1889) began his printing career at the Springfield Republican . In 1833 he launched The Sun in New York; it was priced at one cent, far cheaper than the other New York dailies .
The real novelty was the business model. Instead of subscriptions, street sales: the paper was bought in bulk and handed to street sellers, the “newsboys”, and income came from advertising . The content shifted too, towards local events, court and police reports, and human-interest stories .
In 1838 he sold the Sun to his brother-in-law Moses Yale Beach for 40,000 dollars, and in 1842 he founded the weekly Brother Jonathan . His name is often mentioned together with the “Moon Hoax” of 1835; but historians credit the author of that series to the Sun’s reporter Richard Adams Locke .
In this course
He stands at the centre of the penny press card in A History of Mass Media.