The New York Herald was a large-distribution newspaper based in New York City that existed between 1835 and 1924, when it was acquired by its smaller rival the New-York Tribune to form the New York Herald Tribune.
![]() Cover of New York Herald on June 20, 1861, covering news of the American Civil War | |
Type | Daily newspaper |
---|---|
Format | Broadsheet |
Publisher | James Gordon Bennett, Sr. James Gordon Bennett, Jr. |
Founded | 1835 |
Ceased publication | 1924 |
Headquarters | Manhattan |
Circulation | 84,000 (1861) |
It ceased publication in 1966 after a prolonged and draining strike with its printers union; its European edition was jointly acquired by The Washington Post and The New York Times, which renamed it the International Herald Tribune. The Times subsequently gained full control, publishing it today as The New York Times International Edition.[1]New York magazine, created as the Herald Tribune's Sunday magazine in 1963,[2] was independently revived in 1968. It continues to publish today under this name.
The first issue of the paper was published by James Gordon Bennett Sr., on May 6, 1835.[3] The Herald distinguished itself from the partisan papers of the day by the policy that it published in its first issue: "We shall support no party—be the agent of no faction or coterie, and we care nothing for any election, or any candidate from president down to constable." Bennett pioneered the "extra" edition during the Herald's sensational coverage of the Robinson–Jewett murder case.[4]
By 1845, it was the most popular and profitable daily newspaper in the United States.[3] In 1861, it circulated 84,000 copies and called itself "the most largely circulated journal in the world."[5] Bennett stated that the function of a newspaper "is not to instruct but to startle and amuse."[6][7] His politics tended to be anti-Catholic and he had tended to favor the Know-Nothing faction. But he was not as anti-immigrant as the Know-Nothing party were.[citation needed] During the American Civil War, Bennett's policy, as expressed by the newspaper, was to staunchly support the Democratic Party.[clarification needed] Frederic Hudson served as managing editor of the paper from 1846 to 1866.
In April 1867, Bennett turned over control of the paper to his son James Gordon Bennett Jr.[8] Under James Jr., the paper financed Henry Morton Stanley's expeditions into Africa to find explorer David Livingstone, where they met on November 10, 1871.[9] The paper also supported Stanley's trans-Africa exploration. In 1879 it supported the ill-fated expedition of George W. De Long to the Arctic region.
In 1874, the Herald ran the New York Zoo hoax,[10][11] in which the front page of the newspaper was devoted entirely to a fabricated story of wild animals getting loose at the Central Park Zoo and attacking numerous people.
On October 4, 1887, James Jr. sent Julius Chambers to Paris, France to launch a European edition. Bennett later moved to Paris, but the New York Herald suffered from his attempt to manage its operation in New York by telegram. In 1916 a Saturday issue of the paper reported that a major financier was found dead from poisoning; it added that in 1901 he was "mysteriously poisoned and narrowly escaped death."[12]
In 1924, after James Jr.'s death, the New York Herald was acquired by its smaller rival the New York Tribune, to form the New York Herald Tribune. In 1959, the New York Herald Tribune and its European edition were sold to John Hay Whitney, then the U.S. ambassador to the UK.
When the Herald was still under the authority of its original publisher Bennett, it was considered to be the most intrusive and sensationalist of the leading New York papers.[citation needed] Its ability to entertain the public with timely daily news made it the leading circulation paper of its period.
During the time of original publisher Bennett, the New York Herald was perhaps the best-known American paper in Europe.[13] It had a European edition, which by 1958 had a circulation of some 2,000 copies.[13]
But what became known as the Paris Herald did not start until its first issue came out on October 4, 1887.[14] The official name of the paper on its front page masthead was The New York Herald European Edition—Paris.[15] But it became widely known as simply the Paris Herald.[16]
Publisher Bennett Jr. referred to the paper as a "village publication" for the circle of people in Paris who were interested in international news.[17] Indeed, during its first decades of publication a feature of the paper was a list of every American known to be in Paris at the time, culled from inspections of hotel registries.[14] Even as the paper's audience grew, most of its readers were in France or countries near France.[17]
The European edition consistently lost money into the 1910s.[14] As the time of Paris in World War I began, Bennett Jr. kept the paper running, even during the First Battle of the Marne when some French papers shut down.[14] When the American Expeditionary Forces began arriving in France in 1917, demand for the Paris Herald soared, with eventually some 350,000 copies being printed each day and the edition finally becoming profitable.[14]
The European edition subsequently became a mainstay of American expatriate culture in Europe. In Ernest Hemingway's novel, The Sun Also Rises (1926), the first thing the novel's protagonist Jake Barnes does on returning from Spain to France is buy the New York Herald from a kiosk in Bayonne and read it at a café.[18]
In 1966, the New York Herald Tribune ceased publication after a lengthy and costly printers' strike. The Washington Post and The New York Times acquired joint control of the European edition, renaming it the International Herald Tribune. The paper was under that name until 2013.[18]
The New York Evening Telegram was founded in 1867 by the junior Bennett, and was considered by many to be an evening edition of the Herald. Frank Munsey acquired the Telegram in 1920, and ceased its connection to the Herald.[19]
The finished four-page Herald with its circulation of twelve thousand as in 1845 the most popular and profitable daily newspaper in the United States. Its niche was so secure that its success seemed almost inevitable. But Bennett was fifty years old, and his success had come very late, after many years of apparent failure. ...
His quest to find David Livingstone was financed by his paper, the New York Herald. Nothing had been heard of the great explorer since the previous year, when he was somewhere on Lake Tanganyika.