Studies of the Max Kade Institute

the emergence of strong big-city newspapers, which served a regional
readership and became flagship papers for the entire network of
German journalism. Such papers now had the capabililty of offering
their readers all the news and information available in the English-
language newspapers of the day.
Foremost among the technological developments was the
telegraph. Following its introduction in 1844, the telegraph was
quickly adopted by newspapers for newsgathering purposes. It
became a necessary element for establishing a daily newspaper,
especially in areas away from the eastern seaboard. Daily telegraphic
news reports could overcome the uncertainties of mail deliveries and
reliance upon exchange newspapers. For many German newspapers,
the adoption of telegraphic reports was simultaneous with the
decision to publish daily. This was the case, for example, with the
Milwaukee Wisconsin Banner in January of 1850 and the St. Louis
Anzeiger des Westens in December of 1851.16 The Anzeiger furnished
some insights into the economics of telegraphic journalism when it
complained bitterly that a rival paper, the Deutsche Tribune, was
stealing telegraphic dispatches from other papers rather than paying
for them. Meanwhile the seven other papers presenting telegraphic
dispatches shared equally in their cost, which in the Anzeiger's case
was seven to eight dollars a week.17 Atthesametimethatthe
telegraph began to play an important role, the influence of the railroad
was also being felt. The 1850s saw one of the largest railroad-
building booms in American history; by the end of the decade a
network of rails extended from the Atlantic to beyond the Mississippi.
Newspapers could now depend on more reliable and regular delivery
of exchange newspapers and other editorial material through the
mails. Perhaps more important was the way in which the railroads
facilitated distribution, helping newspapers at centers of population
to develop a regional circulation. In 1850 the Milwaukee Wisconsin
Banner stated that its weekly edition, published on Wednesday,
should normally reach every post office in the state within one
day. The growth of dominant regional German newspapers did not
inhibit the small-town papers; there was enough population growth to
stimulate both, and the smaller German papers could find their own
role to play in community news and local politics. But the 1850s did
see the emergence of a two-level structure of German journalism,
comprised of the major regional papers and the smaller local ones.

222