By far the most common of early titles were “Gazette” and then “Advertiser“. Between 1704 and 1820 “Gazette” was used either by itself or as part of a newspaper title 488 times. This was closely followed by “Advertiser” with 440 times, showing the deference which publishers paid to their advertisers who made up the greater part of a newspaper’s profit.
These two titles were followed by “Herald” with 115 times, “Journal” 114, “Intelligencer” 104, “Register” 86, “Republican” 77, “Chronicle” 75, “Patriot” 57, “Centinel” or “Sentinel” 56, and “Courier” 45.
Titles frequently used, but in lesser number, were “Eagle“, “Mercury“, “Messenger“, “Monitor“, “Museum“, “Observer“, “Post“, “Recorder“, “Repository“, “Star” and “Times“.
It is curious that “Times” was rarely used before 1820, and there is no mention whatever of “Tribune” or “Transcript“, all somewhat common within newspaper titles today.
(The above is excerpted from the book “Journals and Journeymen” by Clarence Brigham)
1 Comment To "Hobby trivia: most used newspaper titles…"
#1 Comment By Todd And On 06/30/2009 @ 8:50 pm
Interesting post, Tim. I have a future post request for you that I’m hoping you can tackle, or perhaps you can find a guest author for this one. I’d love to read more about the accuracy of the reporting in the 18th and 19th centuries. For instance, I heard in an interview regarding John Dillinger that reporters during the 1930s only took the stories of police officers, which often led to inaccurate reporting. So, I’d love to hear about the accuracy of very early reporting and how valid is the stuff we read about in the historic editions we collect. Thanks!