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Newspaper New-York Tribune (New-York [N.Y.]) 1841-1842

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About New-York Tribune (New-York [N.Y.]) 1841-1842

Horace Greeley founded the New York Tribune as a Whig party, penny paper on April 10, 1841, and would continue as its editor for the next thirty years. During Greeley’s tenure the Tribune became one of the more significant newspapers in the United States, and Greeley was known as the outstanding newspaper editor of his time. In 1924 the Tribune merged with the New York Herald to form the New York Herald Tribune, a publication which would remain a major United States daily until its demise.

Distinguishing features of the early penny press were their inexpensiveness, their appeal to the average reader, their coverage of more and different types of news, and, in some instances, a marked political independence. Penny papers such as the New York Sun and the New York Herald were known for their emphasis on lurid crime reporting and humorous, human interest stories from the police court. The Tribune offered a strong moralistic flavor, however, playing down crime reports and scandals, providing political news, special articles, lectures, book reviews, book excerpts and poetry. As with other penny papers, the Tribune was not averse to building circulation by carrying accounts involving sex and crime, but it was careful to present this material under the guise of cautionary tales.

Greeley gathered an impressive array of editors and feature writers, among them Henry J. Raymond, Charles A. Dana, Bayard Taylor, George Ripley, Margaret Fuller, and, for a while, Karl Marx served as his London correspondent. Reflecting his puritanical upbringing, Greeley opposed liquor, tobacco, gambling, prostitution, and capital punishment, while actively promoting the anti-slavery cause. His editorial columns urged a variety of educational reforms and favored producer’s cooperatives, but opposed women’s suffrage. He popularized the phrase “Go west, young man; go west!” The Tribune supported Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War, but opposed his renomination in 1864.

While the Tribune’s circulation always trailed its rivals the Sun and the Herald, neither could match the immense success of its weekly edition. First published on September 2, 1841, the Tribune weekly enjoyed a wide popularity in small cities and towns, and by 1860 had registered a record-breaking circulation of 200,000.

Greeley died in 1872. Under Whitelaw Reid’s control (1873-1912), the Tribune became one of the nation’s leading Republican dailies. Reid’s son, Ogden, succeeded him and purchased the New York Herald in 1924, merging the two newspapers to form the New York Herald Tribune. Noted for its typographical excellence, the high quality of its writing, its Washington and foreign reporting, and its political columnists, the Herald Tribune would reign as the voice of moderate Republicanism and competent journalism for the next four decades. It featured some of the best reporters in the business-Joseph Barnes, Homer Bigart, Russell Hill, Joseph Driscoll, Joseph Mitchell, Tom Wolfe-and top drawer political columnists such as Walter Lippman, David Lawrence, Joseph Alsop, and Roscoe Drummond. Following Ogden Reid’s death in 1947, the paper began a steady decline, undergoing numerous financial setbacks. In 1961 media entrepreneur John Hay (“Jock”) Whitney became majority shareholder, publisher and editor-in-chief, investing $40 million in a vain attempt to save the paper. The newspaper’s last issue as the Herald Tribune was published April 24, 1966. It merged with two other struggling New York papers, the Journal American and the World Telegram and the Sun to form the World Journal Tribune, which began publishing September 12, 1966 after a lengthy strike. It ceased publication May 5, 1967.

See also: New York Tribune, April 10, 1841-April 12, 1842; New York Daily Tribune, April 22, 1842-May 1, 1850 and May 13, 1850-April 9 1866; New York Tribune, April 10, 1866-March 18, 1924; New York Herald, New York Tribune, March 19, 1924-May 30, 1926; New York Herald Tribune, May 31, 1926-April 24, 1966.

Provided By: Library of Congress, Washington, DC

About this Newspaper

Title

  • New-York Tribune (New-York [N.Y.]) 1841-1842

Names

  • Greeley, Horace, 1811-1872.

Dates of Publication

  • 1841-1842

Created / Published

  • New-York [N.Y.] : Horace Greeley, 1841-1842.

Headings

  • -  New York (N.Y.)--Newspapers
  • -  New York County (N.Y.)--Newspapers
  • -  New York (State)--New York
  • -  New York (State)--New York County
  • -  United States--New York--New York--New York

Genre

  • Newspapers

Notes

  • -  Daily (except Sunday)
  • -  Vol. 1, no. 1 (Apr. 10, 1841)-v. 2, no. 10 (Apr. 21, 1842).
  • -  Issues for Apr. 12-21, 1842 called also whole no. 314-322.
  • -  Available on microfilm from University Microfilms International, and Recordak Corp.
  • -  Archived issues are available in digital format as part of the Library of Congress Chronicling America online collection.
  • -  Campaign ed.: Log cabin (New York, N.Y.), 1841.
  • -  Description based on: Vol. 1, no. 4 (Apr. 14, 1841).
  • -  Latest issue consulted: Vol. 2, no. 10 (Apr. 21, 1842).
  • -  New-York daily tribune 2158-2661 (DLC)sn 83030213 (OCoLC)9388331

Medium

  • volumes : illustrations

Call Number/Physical Location

  • Newspaper
  • AN

Library of Congress Control Number

  • sn83030212

OCLC Number

  • 9388253

ISSN Number

  • 2166-1790

Succeeding Titles

Additional Metadata Formats

Availability

Rights & Access

The Library of Congress believes that the newspapers in Chronicling America are in the public domain or have no known copyright restrictions. Newspapers published in the United States more than 95 years ago are in the public domain in their entirety. Any newspapers in Chronicling America that were published less than 95 years ago are also believed to be in the public domain, but may contain some copyrighted third party materials. Researchers using newspapers published less than 95 years ago should be alert for modern content (for example, registered and renewed for copyright and published with notice) that may be copyrighted. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item.

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Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

New-York Tribune New-York N.Y. -1842. (New York, NY), Jan. 1 1841. https://www.loc.gov/item/sn83030212/.

APA citation style:

(1841, January 1) New-York Tribune New-York N.Y. -1842. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/sn83030212/.

MLA citation style:

New-York Tribune New-York N.Y. -1842. (New York, NY) 1 Jan. 1841. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, www.loc.gov/item/sn83030212/.