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Article: Red Blood & Black Ink: Journalism in the Old West.
- Article from:
- Columbia Journalism Review
- Article date:
- March 1, 1998
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1998 Columbia University, Graduate School of Journalism. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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This big, anecdotal study of western newspapering begins, naturally enough, in 1808, with Irish emigre Joseph Charless bringing the first printing press west of the Mississippi. Charless had already sold two newspapers in Kentucky before coming west to start the Missouri Gazette in St. Louis; after seven years he had so annoyed some locals that they raised a thousand dollars to bring a competing paper to town, advertising for a printer "of correct Republican principles with even moderate abilities."
The second printing press west of the Mississippi belonged to Charless's new competitor, but hundreds of newspapers would follow, often born with the start-up towns ...