on March 25, 1836, the first number of the Public Ledger. A month earlier a Philadelphia printer, William L. Drane, had issued the Daily Transcript as a penny paper, but before the year was over the Transcript was merged with the Public Ledger.
The firm of Swain, Abell and Simmons had had the benefit of watching the progress o'f penny journalism in New York, but they were unfortunate in their time, for their venture was but started when the whole country was threatened with bankruptcy.
The opening number of the Public Ledger contained a broader appeal than had been made in the Sun, for its projectors declared: "While its cheapness places it within the reach of the poorest artisan or laborer, we shall endeavor to furnish to the merchant and manufacturer the earliest and most useful information relating to their respective interests." It declared that it would devote itself with special energy "to a moral and intellectual improvement of the laboring classes, the great sinew of all civilized communities."
The public, which might not, it was presumed, be familiar with the journalistic revolution that had taken place in New York, where there were now three penny papers—two of them successful, the Sun and the Herald — was informed in the first announcement that "in the Cities of New York and Brooklyn, containing a population of 300,000, the daily circulation of the penny papers is not less than 70,000. This is nearly sufficient to place a newspaper in the hands of every man in the two cities and even of every boy old enough to read. These papers are to be found in every street, lane and alley; in every hotel, tavern, counting-house, shop, etc.; almost every porter, drayman, etc., while not engaged in his occupation, may be seen with a penny paper in his hands."
