Build-Up

By the turn of the nineteenth century in New York City, there existed two main newspapers. One was the “New York World”, owned by Joseph Pulitzer, and the other was the “New York Journal” owned by William Randolph Hearst. Papers were sold in non-refundable bundles of 100 to newsboys for a cost of 50 cents. In 1898, this wholesale price for the newspapers rose to 60 cents for these non returnable bundles sold by the newsboys. This price increase would mean that the newsboys would have to sell ten more papers just to break even! All the while the consumer price didn't change, but the profits for Hearst and Pulitzer increased. Hearst and Pulitzer figured that the newsboys would complain but not do anything substantial, but they could not have been more wrong, and by 1899, the newsboys were fed up.