At the climax of the Revolutionary War, the fledgling United States had just 37 active newspapers. By 1900, that number skyrocketed to more than 20,000, representing more than half of all newspapers published worldwide. How did early Americans become so obsessed with print media, and how did that industry shape the economic and cultural fabric of the nation?
On this episode of Mountain Money, hosts Roger Goldman and Kevin Kennedy dive deep into this hidden history with author Alex Wright, discussing his latest book, Empire of Ink: The Printers, Rogues, and Radicals Who Invented the American Newspaper.
Wright details how early American printing transformed from a tightly monitored government side hustle into a booming, opinionated, and highly competitive capitalist engine. The conversation explores the systemic motivations that drove this rapid expansion, including the Postal Act of 1792, which heavily subsidized newspaper delivery and created an early "gift economy" network of free content sharing, and the deletion of newspapers from early copyright protections, which allowed articles to go viral long before the internet.
