3/20/2023 0 Comments Grit newspaperEventually it would become one of the first newspapers in America to feature color photographs and fictional supplements. Grit's influence kept growing throughout the first half of the twentieth century. Senator John Glenn, singing cowboy Gene Autry, poet Carl Sandburg, Kentucky Fried Chicken founder Harland Sanders, singer Loretta Lynn and former baseball Commissioners Happy Chandler and Ford Frick are just a few examples. Several well-known Americans obtained their first job with Grit. Small innovations such as national newsboy delivery and direct mail helped Lamade increase Grit's influence on rural America. ![]() During the twentieth century Grit was sold across the country by young boys, most of whom were recruited by ads in comic books. One major reason that Lamade was so successful with Grit was his previous attempt to hire young boys to help him with circulation. ![]() Grit was becoming a widely-circulated paper and its continued success was due to several factors. He ran the newspaper out of a third-floor single room (in the plant he purchased) before moving down to a storefront location in 1886. ![]() With the paper's newfound success, Lamade was able to purchase Remington typewriters and have them delivered by horse-drawn wagon to the Grit offices in 1892. In less than a decade the paper's circulation rose to 53,000 throughout states east of the Mississippi. Attracted originally by the raffle, subscribers now had become attracted by the weekly articles. Lamade's promotion and hard-work paid off because subscribers to the paper became regular readers. If someone was to combine a coupon from one of these circulars with three other coupons from the Grit, then the bearer was entitled to a chance for the Thanksgiving Day raffle. Each of these circulars contained a coupon for the raffle. He even went as far to hire young boys to post circulars. When entering different towns, Lamade would hire selling agents and local correspondents. To ensure that the paper would succeed in gaining an audience, Lamade traversed Pennsylvania by train to promote his weekly paper. Among the prizes offered were a rifle, piano, and a bedroom suite. In 1885, the Grit began promoting a Thanksgiving Day raffle in order to attract readers outside of Williamsport. Although the paper still struggled to turn a profit through the following year, Lamade devised a plan to turn the paper around. Lamade believed the magazine could succeed but knew he needed to introduce the paper to a larger audience in order to gain readership and money. One of these was to move the paper to Sundays and another was to create the Grit Publishing Company. Lamade made a few changes when first obtaining the paper. From the start of his purchase, Lamade was publisher and president of the printing company. Lamade invested $150 in cash and borrowed $1,100 between himself and his partners to purchase the paper and the plant. He was also a business manager of the weekly Williamsport Times until that paper merged with Grit. He was previously a foreman in the Daily Sun and Banner press room and in 1883 was a printer for the United States Signal Station at Williamsport. Lamade had been only eight years old when he moved to America, but had become well-versed in the newspaper industry by the time of the purchase. ![]() In 1884, a 25-year-old German immigrant by the name of Dietrick Lamade formed a partnership that enabled him to purchase the Williamsport Grit and a local newspaper plant. Due to rising costs and Grit's dwindling circulation, the Daily Sun and Banner prepared to sell the Saturday edition of their daily a little more than a year after the paper was first published.
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