S8 Ep1266: Alex Wright — Multi-Part, Part One: Alex Wright, author of Empire of Ink: The Printers and Radicals Who Invented the American New

Alex Wright — Multi-Part, Part One: Alex Wright, author of Empire of Ink: The Printers and Radicals Who Invented the American Newspaper, details the uniquely American invention of the newspaper, beginning with Mary Katherine Goddard's printing of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. Early printing was a grueling, high-status trade where printer's devils, or apprentices, worked with lead and ink balls. Technological evolution was driven by necessity; rag shortages in the nineteenth century led to bizarre experiments, including turning imported Egyptian mummy linen into paper. The Penny Press, pioneered by Benjamin Day, revolutionized the industry by catering to the working class with tabloids and hoaxes, much to the horror of elitists such as Charles Dickens. Wright emphasizes that early American journalism thrived on a sharing economy in which newspapers were exempted from copyright and postal subsidies encouraged editors to cut and paste each other's work, effectively networking the young nation together. (6)