In the 1960s , roughly 30,000 kidskin had a job in which they were efficaciously their own bosses . Each weekend , they would canvas neighborhoods todelivera weekly paper to existing customer or solicit subscriptions from raw readers . Some even abide on street corner to pitch their wares .
Their business was impressive — about 728,000 people , which would eventually grow to 1.5 million by 1969 . Many of theminsistedthey did n’t readTIMEorReader ’s Digest . rather , they opt for what the carriers were offer . It was calledGrit , and it was in acute demarcation to the newsworthiness landscape painting of today .
Gritcarries no sensationalistic news of wars , though several have taken topographic point since its launch in 1882 . There is little to nothing about murder , or jejune juvenile delinquent , or calamity . columnist do n’t take politician to task .
All that was left was in effect news program . Or , as father Dietrick Lamade oncetoldhis staff : “ Always keepGritfrom being pessimistic . Avoid printing those thing which distort the judgement of reviewer or make them palpate at odds with the world . Avoid evidence the unseasonable side of thing , or making people feel discontented . Do nothing that will encourage fear , worry , or enticement . Whenever possible , suggest public security and effective will toward Man . Give our lector courageousness and strength for their day-by-day tasks . Put felicitous mentation , cheer , and contentment in their hearts . ”
This was not your typical newspaper .
Hot Off the Presses
At the timeGritlaunched in the 1880s , induce a philosophy of bringing readers positive headlines was a bit of an aberrance . “ white-livered ” journalism and muckraking was thestandard ; publishers judge to upstage one another with tawdry taradiddle that lacked canonical fact - checking and headlines meant to incite fear or anger among readers . New York Journalowner William Randolph Hearst — who was enjoin to have been the inspiration for Orson Welles ’s 1941 masterpieceCitizen Kane — has even been blamed for drumming up backing for the Spanish - American War thanks to his sensationalized stories of strife in Cuba .
Dietrick Lamade did n’t embrace Hearst ’s coming to sell newspaper . Lamade , a German immigrant , was an adjunct press foreman for Williamsport , Pennsylvania’sThe Daily Sun and Banner . In December 1882 , he was attend to in a Saturday addendum titledGrit , which was light in smell than the day-after-day variation and featured comic and local involvement stories .
WhenThe Daily Sun and Bannerdecidedto cease publication ofGritin 1884 , Lamade resolve to make a bold move . With the help of the adult male who edited theGritsupplement as well as a local printer , he buy out the local printing press of another , lately - defunct newspaper and also acquired the rights to theGritname . ( To this sidereal day , no one is quite trusted where the name come from , other than as a reference to the “ true grit ” of rural Americans . )
Lamade want to stop printing someone else ’s theme and issue his own . For a total investment of $ 1250 , he gravel his regard : The Grit Publishing Company was bear . Within a few months , he had acirculationof 4000 . By 1886 , it was 14,000 .
The very first proceeds ofGritwas concern with some of the more modestdetailsof life in Williamsport , like moth-eaten weather touch on the conditions of streets in township . By the early 20th century , atypicalissue might consist of up to 24 Page with a lot of news , funny strips likeDonald DuckandBlondie , and even verse form . It might also hold back a disjoined “ taradiddle section ” insert with feel - good human interest contentedness .
Later , when it did address matters of creation consequence , the tailspin was normally pollyannaish . Even a reference of Nazis during World War II was in the context of how “ Nazi youths ” were being “ demilitarized at a camp set up in France . ”
But betimes on , it look likeGritmight not live into a new era . A newspaper startup accrue debt , and Lamade ’s speculation was no unlike . To increase gross , he decided to hold on reckon strictly about his base of operation in Williamsport and about how to best go out nationally .
The resolution was , of course , responsible for tiddler labor .
Door-to-Door
As early as 1891 , Lamade resolve that grownup sales event agents traveling by railroad train to spread out theGritword were n’t enough . Neither were contest that awarded prosperous readers plunder like a rifle , pianoforte , or bedroom set . Though reviewer were draw in to the biz of chance — circulation increased to 53,000 in states east of the Mississippi and then to 100,000 by 1900 — Lamade wanted to take reward of a home circulation . Though he keep a local Williamsport variant and even one for the state of Pennsylvania , he wanted a third — one that would reach the entire nation .
His estimate was to enrol children — and not just any tike , but kids in rural area with populations that were n’t necessarily being served by major metropolitan paper . This was difficult betimes on , as Lamade did n’t have a direct assembly line to the boys and young woman who could act as juvenile sales agreement representatives . He made his appeal in the pages ofGrit , trust that a young reader might need to have a side hustle . Those who sign up got a chest pin and were expected to fill out sale forms weekly , station the money collect along toGrit . For each issue , which cost 10 cents , the salesperson would remit 7 cents toGritandkeep3 cents for themselves . An average tike might sell anywhere from 5 to 450 transcript every workweek .
During the Great Depression , this was welcome income , though it was far from well-situated work . In 1995 , one formerGritsalesperson , Tom Flowers , recalledthat his 5 - mi itinerary took up most of his Saturdays . “ I could have covered it quicker , but I stopped to eat and talk at all my costume designer ’ houses , " he write .
Then Lamade found the ultimate outreach program : Comic script .
Comics were gain popularity in the 1940s and 1950s and becoming one of the most pervasive amusement mediums — and Lamade and hisGritstaff realize that advertizing in risible books was the most efficacious recruiting shaft they had . The advertizement actuate reader to take up theGritbeat , hawking the papers to their neighbors for a small cut of the profits or trophy .
There was even some propaganda involved . AccordingtoJohnson City Presscolumnist Bob Cox , Gritonce published a comedian boast a son who hanker for the same kind of adulation given to a friend of his at a local Boys Club . After becoming aGritnewsboy , he achieves it .
From 1932 to 1969,Grit ’s circulation went from 400,000 to 1.5 million with the assist of a lowly and militant assembly of kids who quietly weaved their fashion door - to - door to entice new readers . The strategy madeGritone of the few publications that did n’t need to rely heavily on advertising or ring mail order .
In making their appeal directly to a consumer , Grittapped an untapped market . By one estimate , 65 percent of copies were sold in town with populations of less than 1000 .
A Family Affair
From its inception , Gritprioritized an all - ages column policy . Long after Lamade retired in 1936 and die out at historic period 79 in 1938 , the paper continued to offer positivity . Gritwas assist along by his sons , George and Howard Lamade and , eventually , his grandson .
“ It ’s recital and amusement for all member of the family , ” editor Kenneth A. Rhone toldThe New York Timesin 1970 . “ And it ’s our proud boast that they ’ll find nothing offensive in our pageboy — we keep it clean . ”
By the 1980s , an issue sported headline like “ Gemini the Twins : Twice the playfulness for Mom and Dad ” and “ Indiana Cop use Puppets to figure out criminal offence . ”
In 1981 , the Lamade kinfolk stepped down afterGritwas take on by ADVO Print Inc. , score the death of its 97 - yr run as a family surgical operation . Two age later , the paper was purchased by Stauffer Communications ; in 1996 , Stauffer sold it to Ogden Publications of Wheeling , West Virginia . By 2006,Gritwas no longer a newspaper publisher but a bimestrial magazine , a format it stay to this twenty-four hours .
Given the more and more alarming headlines of 21st century reporting , it ’s easy to understandGrit ’s long-suffering prayer . The paper was n’t designed to upgrade a reader ’s blood atmospheric pressure but to reduce it — or , in Dietrick Lamade ’s words , to “ suggest serenity and just will towards man . ” Paging through an offspring ofGrit , a reader got the feeling that there was still some good news deserving hearing .
