''The Day Book'' was an experimental, advertising-free daily newspaper published in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

from 1911 to 1917. It was owned by

E. W. Scripps Edward Willis Scripps (June 18, 1854 – March 12, 1926), was an American newspaper publisher and, together with his sister Ellen Browning Scripps, founder of The E. W. Scripps Company, a diversified media conglomerate, and United Press ne ...

as part of the Scripps-McRae League of Newspapers (later

Scripps-Howard Newspapers The E. W. Scripps Company is an American broadcasting company founded in 1878 as a chain of daily newspapers by Edward Willis "E. W." Scripps and his sister, Ellen Browning Scripps. It was also formerly a media conglomerate. The company is he ...

). Its editor was Negley D. Cochran, previously of ''

The Toledo News-Bee ''The Toledo News Bee'' is a defunct newspaper that served Toledo, Ohio, and much of northwestern Ohio in the early part of the 20th century. It was formed from the 1903 merger of ''The Toledo News'' and ''The Toledo Bee'', and was published unti ...

''. It was printed in tabloid size to save costs.

History

With the ''Day Book'', Scripps sought to eliminate the often adversarial relationship between his editorial staffs and the advertisers that sustained them. To his disappointment, pressure from the business community had at times forced the ''

Cincinnati Post ''The Cincinnati Post'' was an afternoon daily newspaper published in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. In Northern Kentucky, it was bundled inside a local edition called ''The Kentucky Post''. The ''Post'' was a founding publication and onetime f ...

'' to temper its firebrand campaigns against

bossism In politics, a boss is a person who controls a faction or local branch of a political party. They do not necessarily hold public office themselves; most historical bosses did not, at least during the times of their greatest influence. Numerous off ...

and cronyism. Inspired by

Charles Anderson Dana Charles Anderson Dana (August 8, 1819 – October 17, 1897) was an American journalist, author, and senior government official. He was a top aide to Horace Greeley as the managing editor of the powerful Republican newspaper ''New-York Tribune' ...

's unsuccessful push to eliminate advertising at the New York ''Sun'', Scripps instituted policies at his papers that limited the size of advertisements and discouraged the full page spreads preferred by department stores. In 1904, he outlined a plan for a newspaper chain, starting in Chicago, that relied entirely on subscription fees and sales. The ''Day Book'' began publishing on September 28, 1911. Like his other

penny press Penny press newspapers were cheap, tabloid-style newspapers mass-produced in the United States from the 1830s onwards. Mass production of inexpensive newspapers became possible following the shift from hand-crafted to steam-powered printing. F ...

es, the ''Day Book'' championed

labor rights Labor rights or workers' rights are both legal rights and human rights relating to labor relations between workers and employers. These rights are codified in national and international labor and employment law. In general, these rights influen ...

while delivering a mix of politics and lowbrow, sensational content. Circulation peaked at 22,839 in October 1916, during the 1912 strike of Chicago printers and delivery boys that crippled the city's major newspapers. The ''Day Book'' published its last edition on July 6, 1917. It had turned a profit only one month since its founding, in January 1917. It fell short of the estimated 30,000 subscribers needed to become self-sustaining and far short of the 15% profit Scripps expected of his papers. The ''Day Book'' was digitized by the

Illinois Newspaper Project The Illinois Newspaper Project (INP) began as part of the United States Newspaper Program (USNP), a cooperative effort between the states and the federal government designed to catalog and preserve on microfilm the nation's historic newspaper heri ...

. Archived issues can be found at the

Chronicling America ''Chronicling America'' is an open access, open source newspaper database and companion website. It is produced by the United States National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP), a partnership between the Library of Congress and the National Endowme ...

website.

Notable contributors

A.D. Condo drew about 400 installations of ''

Mr. Skygack, from Mars ''Mr. Skygack, from Mars'' was a comic strip by the American cartoonist A.D. Condo. It appeared in the '' Chicago Day Book'', a Chicago working-class newspaper, from October 2, 1907, to April 1911 in about 400 comic strips and single panels. L ...

'', the first science fiction comic, which was syndicated nationally, in addition to his other strip '' The Outbursts of Everett True''. Donald S. Day later became famous for his work as a Nazi propagandist. Some 135 articles are attributed to reporter

Carl Sandburg Carl August Sandburg (January 6, 1878 – July 22, 1967) was an American poet, biographer, journalist, and editor. He won three Pulitzer Prizes: two for his poetry and one for his biography of Abraham Lincoln. During his lifetime, Sandburg ...

, who would become a celebrated poet after leaving the paper.

References

External links

Chronicling America: ''The Day Book''.

Illinois Digital Newspaper Collections: ''The Day Book'' (1911–1917)

E. W. Scripps Papers
Mahn Center for Archives & Special Collections, Ohio University Libraries, Athens, Ohio. Manuscript collection, primarily correspondence
Correspondence regarding the ''Day Book''
Defunct newspapers published in Chicago Newspapers established in 1911 Publications disestablished in 1917 Defunct daily newspapers Evening newspapers Daily newspapers published in the United States {{Illinois-newspaper-stub

History

Notable contributors

References

Further reading

See also

External links