The Journal of Commerce - 1800s

1800s

In 1827 Arthur Tappan and Samuel Morse decided that New York needed another newspaper. The Journal of Commerce operated two deepwater schooners to intercept incoming vessels and get stories ahead of the competition. Following Morse's invention of the telegraph, the JoC was a founding member of the Associated Press, now the world's largest news-gathering organization.

Publications in the 19th century took positions on political issues and were rarely concerned with being impartial. The JoC weighed in on the biggest issue of the day — slavery. Gerard Hallock and David Hale, partners in the JoC, were fervent abolitionists, but also decried the tactics of the war wing of the Republican Party. After the American Civil War broke out in 1861, the postmaster general suspended the paper's mail privileges, effectively interrupting its publication, on grounds of "disloyalty." Three years later, President Abraham Lincoln ordered the JoC closed after it was among New York papers victimized by a bogus story quoting the president as calling for 400,000 more volunteers.

Following the Civil War, the paper was steered by two men, David Stone, who had taken over from Hallock at the start of the Civil War, and William C. Prime, a lawyer who invested part of his fortune in the paper. The two converted the paper from a partnership into a corporation. Prime soon retired to become president of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Though continuing as one of the lead investors, Prime left Stone in sole control. Stone devoted himself to the paper, writing most of the editorials and many of the page one stories.

But he neglected the paper's physical plant, allowing its technology to become outdated. Type was still set by hand in an era when most papers had switched over to linotype machines. The paper lost ground to its competitors, including the Daily Commercial Bulletin, founded in 1865 and owned by William Dodsworth, a friend of Stone's. But unlike his friend, Dodsworth believed it was more important to invest earnings in plant and equipment than to pay it out to investors.

In 1893 Prime and Stone agreed to sell the JoC to Dodsworth and merge it with the Commercial Bulletin. Though Dodsworth was the acquirer, he retained the JoC's name. The new paper became The Journal of Commerce and Commercial Bulletin, a name that was to be maintained through the 1990s.

The merged paper benefited enormously from the Commercial's new presses and linotype machines, each of which could replace three or four men setting type by hand, one letter at a time. The papers also had complementary advertising support. The Commercial drew advertising from the grocery and provisions business, from insurance and banking. The JoC's coverage focused on shipping and chemicals, textiles and insurance.

When Dodsworth took over, he immediately laid off most members of both staffs. He didn't want writers who couldn't write on the newfangled typewriting machines or compositors who couldn't run linotypes.