It
was early October 1830, and the young man climbing onto the anchored
ship was a reporter for The Journal of Commerce. He was after the latest
news from the Continent and the vessel’s cargo manifests. If he could
get them back into port before any other reporter could reach the French
ship, his paper would have another exclusive on the latest news from
Europe.
And the New York businessmen who would be eagerly
reading the paper would get an early look at the kind of cargo the ship
would be bringing in for auction to the highest bidders on the
waterfront.
The schooner that pulled alongside the French
vessel, inbound from Le Havre, was called the Evening Edition, the
newest of two so-called news boats owned by the newspaper. Their shallow
draft and speed enabled them to skim over the shoals that ringed the
harbor and easily beat the rowboats maintained by rival newspapers back
into Lower Manhattan.
When the
Evening Edition slid into its berth near the foot of Manhattan that
afternoon, the reporter raced up the gangplank and back to his paper’s
editorial offices at 91 Wall Street, just off Water Street.
The story he had scribbled on his notepad would give New Yorkers their
first news of the astounding coup in France. King Charles X had
abdicated in the wake of street riots in Paris that marked the
Revolution of 1830. The story reported that Louis-Phillippe, the
“citizen king,” had assumed the throne.
The “scoop” published
by The Journal of Commerce in its special “extra” edition that day in
1830 was one of many the paper gained through its fleet of news boats.
The boats characterized the paper’s commitment to being the fastest and
most accurate of New York’s many papers. Over the coming years, the JoC
would adapt its methods of news-gathering to the continuing revolutions
in technology that would transform the way papers gathered the news.
Willingness to embrace change has enabled The Journal of Commerce,
which is 175 years old this year, to survive while countless other
publications have failed. Change is the very nature of the world The
Journal of Commerce has covered since the day it was born on Sept. 1,
1827.
Over the years The Journal of Commerce has been a
respected voice on subjects as diverse as banking, commodities,
insurance, energy and transportation. Today the emphasis of the weekly
Journal of Commerce newsmagazine and its breaking-news website, The
Journal of Commerce Online, is on international trade, transportation
and logistics — subjects that descend directly from the paper’s coverage
early in its history.
International trade has been at the
heart of the JoC’s coverage since the publication was launched by a
group of upright New York businessmen as part of a war on sin. In fact,
it was the unbending religious convictions of its founders that steered
the paper into becoming the young nation’s leading maritime and business
journal.
— in New York, NY.
And the New York businessmen who would be eagerly reading the paper would get an early look at the kind of cargo the ship would be bringing in for auction to the highest bidders on the waterfront.
The schooner that pulled alongside the French vessel, inbound from Le Havre, was called the Evening Edition, the newest of two so-called news boats owned by the newspaper. Their shallow draft and speed enabled them to skim over the shoals that ringed the harbor and easily beat the rowboats maintained by rival newspapers back into Lower Manhattan.
When the Evening Edition slid into its berth near the foot of Manhattan that afternoon, the reporter raced up the gangplank and back to his paper’s editorial offices at 91 Wall Street, just off Water Street.
The story he had scribbled on his notepad would give New Yorkers their first news of the astounding coup in France. King Charles X had abdicated in the wake of street riots in Paris that marked the Revolution of 1830. The story reported that Louis-Phillippe, the “citizen king,” had assumed the throne.
The “scoop” published by The Journal of Commerce in its special “extra” edition that day in 1830 was one of many the paper gained through its fleet of news boats. The boats characterized the paper’s commitment to being the fastest and most accurate of New York’s many papers. Over the coming years, the JoC would adapt its methods of news-gathering to the continuing revolutions in technology that would transform the way papers gathered the news.
Willingness to embrace change has enabled The Journal of Commerce, which is 175 years old this year, to survive while countless other publications have failed. Change is the very nature of the world The Journal of Commerce has covered since the day it was born on Sept. 1, 1827.
Over the years The Journal of Commerce has been a respected voice on subjects as diverse as banking, commodities, insurance, energy and transportation. Today the emphasis of the weekly Journal of Commerce newsmagazine and its breaking-news website, The Journal of Commerce Online, is on international trade, transportation and logistics — subjects that descend directly from the paper’s coverage early in its history.
International trade has been at the heart of the JoC’s coverage since the publication was launched by a group of upright New York businessmen as part of a war on sin. In fact, it was the unbending religious convictions of its founders that steered the paper into becoming the young nation’s leading maritime and business journal.
