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Penny press newspapers were cheap, tabloid-style papers produced in the United States the middle of the 19th century. Mass production of inexpensive newspapers became possible due to the shift from handcrafted printing to steam-powered printing. ^[1] The Penny Press was famous for costing one cent compared to other papers which cost around 6 cents. This paper was revolutionary because it made the news available to lower class citizens for a reasonable price, instead of being exclusive to upper-class citizens. The changes made during the Penny Press era set the standards for all future newspapers, and those standards are still implemented today.

History[link]

As the East Coast's middle and working classes grew, so did the new public’s desire for news. Penny papers emerged as a cheap source with coverage of crime, tragedy, adventure, and gossip. The penny papers represented the crudest form of journalism because of the sensational gossip that was reported. ^[2]

The Penny Press was most noted for being very low-priced - only one cent per paper - while other contemporary newspapers were priced around six cents per issue. The exceptionally low price popularized the newspaper in America and extended the influence of paper media to the poorer classes. With the penny press, newspaper made the news and journalism more important. The newspapers also began to pay more attention to the public that they served. They realized that the same information that interested the upper class did not interest the penny public. The “new public” enjoyed information about police and criminal cases. The main revenue of the penny press was advertising while other newspapers relied heavily on high priced subscriptions. ^[3]

The idea of a penny paper was not new in the 1830s. By 1826, multiple editors were experimenting with sports news, gossip, and a cheap press.^[4]

Most newspapers in the early nineteenth century cost 6 cents and were distributed through subscriptions. On July 24, 1830, the first penny press newspaper came to the market: Lynde M. Walter's Boston Transcript. Unlike most later penny papers, Walter's Transcript maintained what was considered good taste, featuring coverage of literature and the theater. This paper sold for four dollars a year. ^[4]

The penny paper’s largest inspiration came from Charles Knight’s The Penny Magazine (1832–1845). The main purpose of the magazine was to educate and improve England’s poor, but was very popular with Americans. It became a very successful magazine as it attained a circulation of more than 20,000 within a year. ^[4]

Fredrick Hudson, one of the first to write about the history of American journalism, believed the rise of the penny press to be a key factor in the development of the modern newspaper. Hudson considered newspapers to be dull during the 1840s.^[4]

Benjamin H. Day, founder of the first penny press in the USA

Benjamin Day (publisher) was the leader in true transformation of the daily newspaper. The newspaper went from narrowly focused on the wealthy and sparsely distributed to a broad-based medium of the news. These changes were mostly seen in New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, and other East Coast cities. ^[6] Later that year, he introduced The Sun. The Sun appealed to a wider audience, using a simpler, more direct style, vivid language, and human interest stories.^[7] Day was a New Englander who worked for the Springfield, Massachusetts paper, the Republican. He came to New York to be a compositor, but in the depression of 1833, he started The Sun in desperation. Day reasoned that a penny paper would be popular in hard times as many could not afford a 6-cent paper. He also believed that a substantial untapped market existed in the immigrant community. The paper was an instant success. The paper's motto, printed at the top of every page, was "The object of this paper is to lay before the public, at a price within the means of every one, all the news of the day, and at the same time offer an advantageous medium for advertisements." ^[8] Day made advances in the written news by introducing a new meaning of sensationalism, which was defined as reliance on human-interest stories. He placed emphasis on the common person as he or she was reflected in the political, educational, and social life of the day. Day also introduced a new way of selling papers. Day put into practice the London Plan. This plan included newsboys hawking their newspapers on the streets. ^[4]

The success of the penny papers was not automatic; selling the new concept of the newspaper to the consuming audience took some persuading. Consumers did not want to buy a new newspaper day after day, which became a challenge. Mostly newspapers at the time did not have any sort of timeliness, so buying a newspaper daily had no point. But, eventually people were concerned with the latest news as penny papers had the latest news. ^[6]

The Sun, Benjamin Day's paper

James Gordon Bennett's 1835 New York Herald added another dimension to penny press newspapers, now common in journalistic practice. Whereas newspapers had generally relied on documents as sources, Bennett introduced the practices of observation and interviewing to provide the stories with more vivid details.^[9] Bennett is known as redefining the concept of news, reorganizing the news business, and introducing newspaper competition. Bennett’s New York Herald was financially independent of politicians because of large numbers of advertisers. Bennett reported mainly local news, and corruption in an accurate style. He realized that, “there was more journalistic money to be made in recording gossip that interested bar-rooms, work-shops, race courses, and tenement houses, than in consulting the tastes of drawing rooms and libraries.” He is also known for writing his “money page” which was included in the Herald and also coverage of women in the news. His innovations made others want to imitate him as he spared nothing to get the news first. ^[4]

Horace Greeley, publisher of 1841's The New York Tribune, also had an extremely successful penny paper. He was involved with the first penny paper, Boston’s Morning Post, which was a failure. Instead of sensational stories, Greeley relied on rationalism in the Tribune. His editorial pages were the heart of his paper and the reason for its large influence. Greeley is also known as using his newspaper as a platform to promote the Whig and Republican parties. ^[4]

Quite possibly the most famous penny press paper was started in 1851 by two men: George Jones (publisher) and Henry Raymond. This paper was originally named The New York Daily Times, but later was changed to The New York Times in 1857. Originally sold at one cent per paper, it became famous for incorporating journalistic standards that are common today as well as having very high quality reporting and writing. The first issue of the New York Daily Times addressed the various speculations on its purpose and positions that preceded its release. It stated:

We shall be Conservative, in all cases where we think Conservatism essential to the public good;—and we shall be Radical in everything which may seem to us to require radical treatment and radical reform. We do not believe that everything in Society is either exactly right or exactly wrong;—what is good we desire to preserve and improve;—what is evil, to exterminate, or reform. ^[10]

—New York Daily Times, 1st issue, 1851

This neutral stance on public issues is a trait that future newspapers adopted, and this made it a good paper to read because people could debate over its content without one side getting an advantage.^{[citation needed]}

Political factors[link]

Political and demographic changes were also significant. Much of the success of the newspaper in the early United States owed itself to the attitude of the "founding fathers" toward the press. Many of them saw the free press as one of the most essential elements in maintaining the liberty and social equality of citizens. Thomas Jefferson said he considered the free press as even more important than the government itself: "Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate any moment to prefer the latter." It was because of his attitude that freedom of the press gained mention in the First Amendment to the Constitution, and though early politicians, including Jefferson, occasionally made attempts to rein in the press, newspapers flourished in the new nation.

However, the penny press was originally apolitical both in content and in attitude. As Michael Schudson describes in Discovering the News, the Sun once replaced their congressional news section with this statement: "The proceedings of Congress thus far, would not interest our readers." ^[11] The major social-political changes brought on by the development of the penny press were themselves helped by the penny press' focus on working-class people and their interests. Thus an apolitical attitude was, ironically, a political factor influencing the advancement of the penny press.

The founders of the penny press popularized both low prices for newspapers and newspaper economics based on sales instead of political party backing. Benjamin Day created The Sun without any political party backing. This was rare because this was an era where political parties sponsored newspapers. On the other hand, Horace Greeley used his newspaper, The New York Tribune, as a platform for Whig politics. ^[12]

Journalists[link]

In the early 1800s, newspapers were largely for the elite and took two forms – mercantile sheets that were intended for the business community and contained ship schedules, wholesale product prices, advertisements and some stale foreign news, and political newspapers that were controlled by political parties or their editors as a means of sharing their views with elite stakeholders. Journalists reported the party line and editorialized in favor of party positions. ^[13] The emergence of the penny press greatly influenced communication technologies by covering news outside those of government interests. The first penny paper, the Sun, was founded in New York in September 1833. After this time, newspapers became nonpartisan since they were not supported by political parties. ^[14] Penny papers hired reporters and correspondents to seek out and write the news, while at the same time, started to sound more journalistic than editorial. Reporters were assigned to beats and were involved in the conduct of local interaction.^[15] The penny press contributed to changes regarding newspaper content and structure. New journalism practices resulted in the development of concepts such as news reporting, emphasizing the importance of timeliness, and appealing to wider audiences. ^[16] These newspapers, though not completely uninfluenced by political parties and their views, were self-funded and not party funded which allowed them to quite easily shift allegiance on political issues that the paper dealt with, which also aided in its success and acceptance by the general public.

Since these newspapers were not politically funded, the core interests of the journalists themselves were obviously quite different from competing newspaper agencies that had heavy political influence. The largest portion of demand was from immigrants, traditional middle class citizens, and nascent literate classes, journalists kept articles concise and engaging with real-life topics that the readers could relate to, and doing so with less sophisticated vocabulary that readers wouldn't require higher education to understand the articles. ^[17] The Penny Press formula is the combination of sensational news with mass market appeal, large scale industrial production, and economies of scale used in combination with neutrality and objectivity to create a paper that gets it's point across without taking sides. ^[18] Also, journalist-incorporated advertisements treated readers as consumers instead of another market for demand, ^[19] in effort to set the vibe of the relationship between paper and reader to be less about work and the economy but more about relaxation and reading for pleasure and relaxation.

Some reporters used the electric telegraph to share information.

The penny press newspapers became more widely read because journalists made the effort to keep their content understandable to even the less educated audiences. They also focused on investigating topics with more factual based information rather than opinion based articles which gave the paper a less biased form of news than the elite newspapers. News items and stories were also shorter than those found in elite papers. It was also believed that the working-class audiences would not have enough free time to read longer editorials, hence the shorter and more concise editorials. ^[20]. Human interest stories were also popular with the penny press audiences. Such items took up more space compared to earlier, more expensive papers that used human interest stories as filler content^[21]. The New York penny papers were particularly known for publishing stories about interesting personalities and covering different aspects of the human condition. To connect with the urban, mostly working-class readership, New York reporters wrote about ordinary people and their experiences ^[22]. They also wrote about the stock market, entertainers, politics, sports, and weather, all of which became important news and are still held as absolute necessities in a newspaper thanks to the Penny Press. ^[23]. Reporters strove to deliver news in a timely manner and sometimes relied on the electric telegraph to gather and share information ^[24]. Another interesting fact about Penny Press journalists was they were the first people to report on crisis and crime news, something that has become a staple in newspapers since. Continuing reports on the same story were introduced in Penny Press papers and were read by thousands of people on the same day. This, in combination with the speed of news delivery and thoroughness in the coverage of local news, forever changed the direction of American Journalism. ^[25].

Julius Chambers, the first Muckraker

There were a number of different types of journalists during the time of the Penny Press, but one of the more interesting types was the Muckraker. A Muckraker was any American journalist who in the first decade of the 20th century, attempted to expose the abuses of business and the corruption in politics. ^[26] Muckrakers, due to their specialization, did not write numerous types of articles but mostly wrote investigative journalism pieces for magazines. Most people consider Julius Chambers the original Muckraker. In 1872, Chambers undertook an journalistic investigation of Bloomingdale Asylum to obtain information about the alleged abuse of inmates. Thanks to his efforts, twelve patients who weren't mentally ill were released, the Asylum was re-staffed, and lunacy laws were changed. ^[27] Muckrakers still comformed to a neutral standpoint, but used their neutrality to dig deeper into the stories they were researching, which is why they ended up with as much information as they did. Muckrakers created a groundwork of public concern and set a standard for journalistic impact on political decision-making that hasn't been matched since. ^[28]

References[link]

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (April 2012)

Jeremy John Ratter (born 8 June 1943, Northwood, England), better known under his pseudonym of Penny Rimbaud, is a drummer, writer, poet, former member of performance art groups EXIT and Ceres Confusion, and co-founder of the anarchist punk band Crass with Steve Ignorant in 1977.

Biography[link]

Rimbaud (so named as a tribute to poet Arthur Rimbaud, the 'Penny' being a pun on the phrase "arfer (half a) penny", referring to the long discontinued British Ha'penny coin^{[citation needed]}) was expelled from two public schools, Brentwood School and Lindisfarne College, and went on to study philosophy at Magdalen College, Oxford, before quickly realising that, in his own words, 'Oxford wasn't about learning, but about a peculiarly unpleasant form of class indoctrination'.^[1] From there he worked briefly in the rag-trade at Warner & Sons of Berners Street, purveyors of fine furnishing fabrics, from which he was sacked for 'liberating' a length of silk brocade out of which his girlfriend had fashioned a ball gown. After a period of bohemian wandering in Spain he enrolled at the South East Essex Technical College and School of Art in the early 1960s, where he met his life-long creative partner Gee Vaucher. While there, he exhibited a talent for tailoring, and quick to realise the potential within the then fledgling Pop Art movement, he scored considerable success as an innovator.

In 1964 he appeared on Granada TV's Ready Steady Go! to receive a prize from Lennon for winning a competition to produce a piece of artwork depicting The Beatles' song "I Wanna Hold Your Hand".^[2] His prize was a copy of Mingus by Charlie Mingus and Dmitri Shostakovich's Cello Concerto, to which Lennon, clearly discomfited, remarked 'Rocker!', adding as an aside, 'That's nowhere, man. I'll get you for that'.

In 1962, while travelling around the Costa Brava Rimbaud and his friend Mick Smee (also known as "the Pope") made up a dance called Le Twiddle as a riposte to both the Twist and to a lesser extent Johnny Hallyday's Le Madison. Le Twiddle was particularly licentious and became popular with young men in bars and nightclubs leading to outraged reports in the Spanish press ("English Claim Pope Invented New Dance"), which in turn attracted the attention of Franco's Fascist Guardia who banned it, making several arrests to prove their point. Rimbaud and Smee managed to escape unscathed.^{[citation needed]}

Inspired by the film Inn of the Sixth Happiness,^[3] Rimbaud set up the anarchist/pacifist Dial House community in 1967 with Gee Vaucher, and, together with his friend Phil Russell (aka Wally Hope), helped to instigate the free festival movement at Windsor and later Stonehenge during the early 1970s.

As documented in Rimbaud's essay Last of the Hippies^[4] and his autobiography Shibboleth, Russell was arrested and incarcerated in a mental institution after having been found in possession of a small amount of LSD. He was later released, but appeared to have been seriously mentally damaged by his experiences, especially the side effects of prescription drugs that he had been administered, and subsequently died. The official verdict is that Russell committed suicide, although Rimbaud claims that he uncovered strong evidence that he was murdered. Rimbaud has claimed that it was his anger over unanswered questions surrounding his friend's death that fueled and inspired him to form Crass.

Penny Rimbaud (on the composting toilet) and Gee Vaucher, 2002

Although Crass disbanded in 1984, Rimbaud continued to write and perform both as a solo artist and as a part of the Crass Collective alongside other ex members of the band such as Eve Libertine, Gee Vaucher and Steve Ignorant, as well as other artists and musicians.

His works include the originally self-published Reality Asylum,^[5] a vitriolic attack on Christianity which has appeared as a 2 minute track on Crass' 1978 debut album The Feeding of the 5000, as a longer single^[6] and as a 45 minute spoken word monologue.

Penny Rimbaud performing with Last Amendment at The Vortex, Hackney, 30 November 2006

He also wrote Rocky Eyed, an extended poem attacking then prime minister Margaret Thatcher and her government following the 1982 Falklands War which was recorded as the Crass album Yes Sir, I Will,^[7] The Death of Imagination (a 'musical drama in 4 parts'), The Diamond Signature (published by AK Press) and Oh America, a response to the events of September 11, 2001 and America's subsequent War on Terror which includes the line Give us justice which is not the searing spite of revenge, peace which is not the product of war nor dependent upon it.^[8]

Since 2003 he has worked as part of Crass Agenda (latterly Last Amendment), performing live and releasing material in CD format including Savage Utopia, a collaboration with Coldcut's Matt Black and other jazz musicians, and How?, a reworking of Allen Ginsberg's beat poem Howl, recorded live at the Vortex Jazz Club.

During 2005 Rimbaud completed a philosophical work "This Crippled Flesh" (first and second editions published by Bracketpress, 2010), as well as appearing in Dominic Thackray's short film Girlfriend in a Kimono.

He has written introductions to books including the controversial The Evil Empire: 101 Ways That England Ruined the World and Graham Burnett's 'Earth Writings' and is currently (as of 2007) working on a "Jazz Requiem" with saxophonist Ed Jones. He is also a regular columnist for the Stoke Newington based magazine "N16".

He contributed several spoken word tracks to the 2008 Japanther album Tut Tut Now Shake Ya Butt. Rimbaud also features on the 2010 album by The Charlatans (UK band) Who We Touch.^[9] Most recently (September/October/November 2010), he has been studying with Dr Matthew W Griffiths, Professor of Physics at the University of New Haven. They are currently co-authoring a book - Tricking the Impossible: An Investigation into Modern Alchemic Thought - about which Rimbaud asserts on Street Carnage that 'quantum is the new poetry of the soul'.

Bibliography[link]

• A Series Of Shock Slogans And Mindless Token Tantrums (Exitstencil Press, 1982) (originally issued as a pamphlet with the LP Christ - The Album, much of the text is now published online at [1])
• Shibboleth- My Revolting Life (Penny Rimbaud, 1999, AK Press)
• The Diamond Signature (Penny Rimbaud, 1999, AK Press)
• An extensive interview with Rimbaud appears in issue 29 of The Idler magazine
• In The Beginning…Was The Word (Penny Rimbaud, 2005, Bracketpress)
• Freedom Is Such A Big Word (Penny Rimbaud, 2006, Bracketpress)
• Methinks (Penny Rimbaud, 2006, Bracketpress)
• How? (Penny Rimbaud, 2006, Bracketpress)
• The Conveniences of Philosophy (Penny Rimbaud, 2007, Bracketpress)
• Smile or Smirk? (Penny Rimbaud, 2007, Bracketpress)
• And Now It Rains (Penny Rimbaud, 2007, Bracketpress)
• I The Indigene & Africa Seems So Far Away (Penny Rimbaud, 2007, Bracketpress)
• Turn On, Tune In, Cop Out (Penny Rimbaud, 2008, Bracketpress)
• Nobody’s Child (Penny Rimbaud, 2008, Bracketpress)
• The Last Of The Hippies (Penny Rimbaud, 2008, Active Distribution)
• This Crippled Flesh – A Book of Philosophy and Filth (Penny Rimbaud, 2010, Bracketpress/Exitstencil Press)
• Particular Nonsense (essay) The Idler, No.43 'Back To The Land' May 2010

Discography[link]

(See also full Crass discography. Rimbaud plays on all albums and singles)

• Christ's Reality Asylum (Crass records, 1992, spoken word cassette)
• The Death of Imagination (Red Herring Records)
• Savage Utopia (Babel Label, 2004, performed by Crass Agenda)
• How? (Babel Label, 2004, Rimbauds interpretation of Ginsberg's Howl)
• In the Beginning Was the WORD - Live DVD recorded at the Progress Bar, Tufnell Park, London, 18 November 2004, performed by Crass Agenda (Gallery gallery Productions @ Le Chaos Factory, 2006)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Rimbaud's website
• Southern Studio website pages on Rimbaud
• Interview with Penny Rimbaud
• The Pig's Head Controversy
• Extract from Fierce dancing by C.J.Stone, Rimbaud talking about Wally Hope
• PUNKCAST#1065 Video of Rimbaud/Elliott - Last Amendment - at Gavin Brown Passerby NYC on Nov 8 2006.
• bracketpress.co.uk Bracketpress website, publishers of Rimbaud's essays and poetry.