The invention of modern journalism

Newspapering is so old, and its chief champions are fusty enough that it’s easy to set aside its histories as the relics of an extinct industry — like beeper sales or switchboard operation.

But 20th century newspapers weren’t just a light-manufacturing industry. This trade developed how we gather and distribute news and information in ways that shape us today. That’s my continued interest in the “invention of the news,” and its many histories.

One of the most influential publications in shaping today’s information ecosystem was that century’s Wall Street Journal, and its longtime leader Barney Kilgore. It’s worth reviewing their origins.

That’s the focus of Restless Genius : Barney Kilgore, the Wall Street Journal, and the Invention of Modern Journalism, a 2009 book written by Harvard-trained lawyer Richard Tofel, who became ProPublica’s founding general manager. Today he is a thoughtful, and prolific journalism commentator.

Though I follow Tofel’s writing, I hadn’t read this particular book yet. It reads primarily as a history of the Wall Street Journal, and this one particular leader, but there are more lasting lessons Tofel draws. It’s still worth reading.

The broadest reading: High-quality news and information can be assembled into a product that solves clear enough problems for people to spend money on.

After the peak of Gilded Age “yellow journalism“, many modern journalistic standards were established in the 20th century. This mass-media era developed a positively-reinforcing dual incentive: quality was a distinction, especially first in business news, that attracted paying subscribers, who were valuable and hard-to-reach enough that advertising was lucrative, which in turn justified more investment in news gathering and product quality. That particular bundle was famously disrupted by various internet-enabled platforms, but the lessons remains true. Tofel helped lead a ProPublica team that attracted philanthropic and reader-donors. National and business media have also had success with new subscriber models, many newsrooms today have robust event strategies that differently package their news. In our own way, my news organization Technical.ly has come out of the pandemic selling our reporting as a service that addresses a communication gap that economic development faces (which has required entirely new language, which other journalists often sniffle at). Plenty other examples exist, and more to come.

Below my notes for future reference.

My notes:

• Kilgore credited with introducing many modern news-delivery innovations, including summary boxes of articles at the top
• Samuel Bowles: “put it all in the first line” (Taught the “inverted pyramid” to Charles Dow)
• Dow Jones origin: Jones was perhaps the first to follow individual companies, rather than markets. They printed sheets of paper with company updates, which sellers could subscribe to for $5 per month (or $1200 per year in modern dollars). Dow (and Bergstresser reported); Jones edited
• The Journal started as an afternoon paper. Through the 1870s most newspapers were AM, but by 1880 more were PM, and by 1890 two-thirds were PM
• In 1898, the Journal printed 10k copies ; New York World had 375k copies in 1892 and by 1897 crossed 1m
• In 1899, “in all things first, and in many things alone”
• Clarence Barron bought Dow Jones. Barron was Boston born and later established the Philadelphia Financial Journal
• “The truth in its proper use”
• Barron’s as his son in law
• “Journalism was not about the writer but the reader “
• “Penny lectures” by Kilgore drafted as the “Dear George “ letters, in which Kilgore, as a 23-year-old editor, explained financial concepts, in more approachable than fusty language
• Kilgore was young and untrained in economics but seems to have read a lot of Irving Fisher (who predated Keynes)
• Fisher was a monetarist and so then overshadowed by the Keynes fiscal focus — later Milton Friedman picked up the thread. Fisher was called by Schumpter the first great American economist, who developed a foundation for macroeconomics — but disparaged for overlooking the Great Depression
• Kilgore: “The number of dollars in anybody’s pay envelope is not the most important thing — the real point is what those dollars will buy”
• Hogate takes leadership after suicide, family gives him confidence and sets a true vision; that the WSJ is “not the power of management. We are the paper of the ultimate investor“
• Initially Hoagte’s idea, Barney Kilgore wrote the first “What’s News” on front page that remains on WSJ to this day (short summaries)
• Kerby left WSJ for salary: from $60 to $105 a week as publicist for Liberty League by Al Smith which was attacking the New Deal
• Kilgore did Gallup-inspired man on the street political polling that he indexed to populations but misread FDR-Wilke election by confusing intensity of support with the prevalence (Wilkie had a few loud fans)
• “The easiest thing in the world for any reader to do is to stop reading” Barney Kilgore
• Kilgore and Bill Kerby became associated with forming the anecdotal lede and nut graf (summarizing it all before the story goes too deep)
• WSJ: 45 years to hit 50k copies; 17 years of getting back there after depression; then hit 100k in two years; (1945: 59k; 1946 76k; 1947 103k)
• Electro Typesetter
• In 1954, GM had 45% market share, Ford had 32%, and the remaining 6, going on 4 (after further consolidation. ) managed 23%
• In 1954, after The Wall Street Journal published reporting (including sketches) about GM’s closely guarded upcoming 1955 car models, General Motors retaliated by pulling its ads and cutting the paper off from company information—an embargo the Journal refused to bow to, insisting it would keep reporting without “off-the-record” constraints.
• It mattered because autos were among the biggest national newspaper advertisers, and the episode became a widely cited proof-point in that era that a major newsroom could publicly defend editorial independence even at real revenue risk
• In February 1955, Kilgore bought the Princeton Packet as a hobby project (1k circulation when WSJ was 350k
• National Observer was planned to be “a prestige newspaper” that is “fun to go to bed with”
• Launched at 32 pages 8oz and split editorial and ads (the NYT Sunday was 400 pages and weighed four pounds)
• 1962 Dow Jones: $59m revenue, $6.5m net income
• 1m circ when Barney died, peaked at 2m in early 1980s; was highest circulation nespaper until USA Today in 1990s