The Horace Greeley Foundation

Poultney, Vermont

The Horace Greeley Foundation
95 On the Green
East Poultney, VT 05764

ph: 802-287-2577

Follow us:Facebook

  • Home
  • Who was Horace Greeley?
    • Early Life
    • Apprenticeship in Poultney, Vermont
    • Founder of the New York Tribune
    • Writer and Editor
    • Supporter of Many Causes
    • The Civil War
    • After the Civil War
    • Funeral
    • Sources
  • Horace Greeley Writers' Symposium
    • 2017 Symposium Photos
    • 2016 Symposium Photos
    • 2015 Symposium Photos
    • 2014 Symposium Photos
    • 2013 Symposium Photos
    • 2012 Symposium Photos
    • Accommodations
  • Horace Greeley Student Scholarship
  • Horace Greeley Foundation
    • Foundation Officers and Board Members
  • Vermont State House Resolution
  • Photos
  • Contact Us

Founder of the New York Tribune

Late in 1831 at age 20, Greeley relocated to New York City, which already had a population of more than 200,000.

The young printer published a number of periodicals, some successful and some not, before establishing the New-York Tribune in 1841.

The Tribune began as a four-page paper of 5,000 copies, price one cent. The daily circulation climbed to 13,000 in 1849 to 45,000 by 1860 to 90,000 by the end of the Civil War.

In his autobiography, Greeley expressed his goal. “The idea is . . . to embody in a single sheet the information daily required by all those who aim to keep ‘posted’ on every important occurrence; so that the lawyer, the merchant, the banker, the forwarder, the economist, the author, the politician, etc., may find here whatever he needs to see, and be spared the trouble of looking elsewhere.”

The Tribune was far more than a New York newspaper.  A weekly, which reached a circulation of 200,000 by the Civil War, was read in small towns and rural areas throughout the country. Greeley wrote, “We mean that no weekly shall surpass this in giving a full graphic and faithful account of what the World is Doing, whereof it is Thinking, and how it is Progressing.”

Greeley purchased the most modern steam-driven printing presses, increasing the size of the newspaper and the speed with which it could be printed. He realized the potential of the telegraph in gathering news.

The Tribune was instrumental in the birth of mass media. Greeley’s newspaper influenced a wide audience and played many of the roles later taken by diverse large-circulation periodicals, radio and television, and the internet.

Copyright 2013 The Horace Greeley Foundation. All rights reserved.

Web Hosting by Yahoo!

The Horace Greeley Foundation
95 On the Green
East Poultney, VT 05764

ph: 802-287-2577

Follow us:Facebook