Penny Press was the term used to describe the revolutionary business tactic of producing newspapers which sold for one cent. The Penny Press is generally considered to have started September 3,1833, when Benjamin Day founded The Sun, a New York City newspaper.
Day, who had been working in the printing business, started a newspaper as a way to salvage his business after setbacks which began during a local financial panic caused by the cholera epidemic of 1832. His idea of selling a newspaper for a penny seemed radical at a time when most newspapers sold for six cents.
He reasoned that many working class people were literate, but were not newspaper customers simply because no one had published a newspaper targeted to them. By launching The Sun, Day was taking a gamble. But it proved successful.
Besides making the newspaper very affordable, Day instituted another innovation, the newsboy. By hiring boys to hawk copies on street corners, The Sun was both affordable and readily available.
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