32. American press during the War of Independence (1775-1783)

During any war or revolution, interest in news dramatically increases, and the demand for newspapers increases. But the harsh military conditions make publishing difficult, especially if the war is fought on its territory. So it was in that war, with the number of newspapers in 1775-1783. decreased from 46 to 38. Many of them were closed by military authorities. The most influential and consistent revolutionary publication was the Boston Gazette.

The military news in this, as in other newspapers, was fragmentary and not particularly reliable, since the newspapers did not yet have full-time war correspondents and often had to be rumored.

Hard trials fell to the lot of the New York revolutionary newspapers. This city was occupied almost entirely by the British during the war, and the newspapers were published in evacuation.

Although most of the periodical bodies supported the struggle for independence, there were many pro-British newspapers. The most influential of these was the New York Gazetteer (1773–1783) with a circulation of 3.5 thousand copies.

Along with numerous examples of selfless struggle in the history of the War of Independence, there are cases of political maneuvering and compromises. This fully applies to the Philadelphia Evening Post. Its publisher, Benjamin Town, began in 1775 as an ardent patriot. After joining the city of the English in 1777, he turned to their side, but when the American army returned the following year, with the same fervor, as if nothing had happened, he began to stand up for independence. Since the overwhelming majority of newspapers during the war years came out weekly, and important news could have come long before the next issue, specials were often made. Gradually, American journalism was approaching the advent of daily print.

During the war years, flashy page-length headlines first appeared. Most often they were printed in emergency issues on the occasion of military victories. But after the war, due to an increase in the number of columns and a strictly vertical sequence of text from column to column, they disappeared, since the heading could not be wider than one column.

Drawing conclusions, it is impossible not to note the important contribution to the struggle for independence made by the American press.