The newspaperman who made news accessible to everyone

Born in Halifax, George E. Fenety (1812 – 1899) was the son of William Fenety and Mary Hall. At 17, he apprenticed under Joseph Howe at the Novascotian (also called the Colonial Herald). Howe’s beliefs in free speech and responsible government would shape Fenety’s career.

In 1835, Fenety moved to New York and worked at the Planters Advocate, eventually becoming its owner. In 1839 he sold the paper and moved to St. John, New Brunswick. Along with his brother William, he started the tri-weekly Commercial News and General Advertiser.

He was his own typesetter, pressman and editor. Within four months he had introduced a new typeface and on April 3, 1840 he enlarged the paper and changed its name to The Morning News.

The Morning News would become the region’s first penny paper. It sold for just one cent. It was affordable, easy to read and focused on the daily lives of ordinary people. Fenety wrote that the penny paper was ‘the poor man’s friend’.

The motto of his newspaper was ‘Reform and Responsible Government’, which pretty much sums up his political leanings. To Fenety this meant almost total independence from England. The Morning News quickly acquired the largest readership in the province. He advocated for the underdog, backing public schools and education for black children. On March 4, 1863 he became Queen’s Printer.

Fenety was first elected Mayor of Fredericton in 1877 and again in 1884 and held this position, off and on, until 1888. As mayor Fenety did much to beautify the city during his term of office. He would use his own money on public projects such as tree planting and the construction of a fountain in front of city hall.

He died on September 30, 1899, in Fredericton, New Brunswick and is buried in Forest Hill Cemetery, Fredericton. He is remembered as being one of the most notable newspapermen of his time in the province.

The Penny Press Revolution

As the middle and working class grew in Atlantic Canada, with varying views both cultural and political, they became hungry for new knowledge. Like today, they wanted their news daily, quickly and for it to be readily available. In Atlantic Canada the first Penny paper was The Morning News, introduced in New Brunswick by George E. Fenety in 1839.

The Penny Press revolutionized the way news was produced and distributed. In the 1800s most newspapers were weeklies and there were two types of newspapers: commercial and political. The political papers were funded by political parties and this dictated the content of the paper. The commercial papers were intended for the business community and contained ship schedules, and wholesale product prices. The Penny Press was best known for its low price – only one cent per paper – while the other weeklies generally cost about six cents and were sold on a subscription basis. People could not buy them on the street, they had to pay for a full years subscription, well above the means of the average worker on the street.

In North America, the first Penny Press was published in 1833 in New York City. The development of new technology enabled newspapers to be produced more cheaply and faster. The new steam-driven, two cylinder presses were capable of producing 18,000 copies an hour whereas the old presses could only manage 125 papers per hour.

The rise of the Penny Press helped reshape society. It made news accessible to all, developed more objectivity in the news and built a solid relationship between advertisers and publishers. The Penny Press introduced the cash system of circulation, where distributors relied on street sales, through the use of newsboys, instead of the previous method of subscription sales.

Publishers began to get their news from criminal courts and police stations, emphasizing the common person. They were written in a sensationalistic ways, depicting a picture of ordinary social life. For the first time, newspapers began printing reports from police, courts, the streets and from private households. These human-interest stories made the Penny Newspapers a medium of daily life.

The low cost of the Penny Press could not have been sustained without the support of advertisers. Publishers realized that exciting content with high circulation was the magic formula for attracting advertisers. Advertisers quickly saw the potential and started buying up space in the papers. This formula is still being used today.