THE THIRD HOME OF “THE SUN”
Beach and Bennett, Rival Publishers, Had Offices Opposite Each Other at Fulton and Nassau Streets.
In his report on newspapers for the Census of 1880, S. N. D. North says that from 1830 to 1840—
By the sheer force of its superior circulation, the penny press exerted the most powerful newspaper influence that was felt in the United States, and during this interval its beneficial influence was the most apparent. It taught the higher-priced papers that political connection was properly subordinated to the other and higher function of the public journal—the function of gathering and presenting the news as it is, without reference to its political or other effect upon friend or foe.
The advent of the penny press concluded the transition period in American journalism, and had three effects which are easily traceable. It increased the circulation, decreased the price of daily newspapers, and changed the character of the reading-matter published.
As Charles H. Levermore wrote in an article on the rise of metropolitan journalism in the American Historical Review:
Independent journalism, as represented first by the Sun and the Herald, won a complete victory over old-fashioned partizan journalism. The time had forever departed when an Albany regency could tune the press of the State as easily and simply as Queen Elizabeth used to tune the English pulpits. As James Parton said, “An editorial is only a man speaking to men; but the news is Providence speaking to men.”
Thus Ben Day’s Sun remade American journalism—more by accident than design, as he himself remarked at a dinner to Robert Hoe in 1851.
It is evident that Day soon regretted the sale of the Sun, for in 1840 he established a penny paper called the True Sun. This he presently sold for a fair price, but his itch for journalism did not disappear. He started the Tatler, but it was not a success. In 1842, in conjunction with James Wilson, he founded the monthly magazine, Brother Jonathan, which reprinted English double-decker novels complete in one issue. This later became a weekly, and Day brought out illustrated editions semi-annually.