History

The New York Herald is the registered trademark of an online New York City news site published at nyherald.com and founded in 2008. The historical New York Herald was a historical American newspaper of at least two manifestations, one existing as a semi-weekly between 1802-1817 and published by Michael Burnham under the name “NEW-YORK HERALD”. The second New York Herald existed between 1835-1924 and was published by James Gordon Bennett, Sr and later by his son, James Gordon Bennett, Jr. It is Bennett’s New York Herald that established itself as a pioneer in the “penny press”, through detailed reporting and cartography of the Civil War and through the publishers’ own personal exploits.

Below please find the history of the 1835-1924 New York Herald story.

1835-1924. The New York Herald as was first published in 1835 by Gordon Bennett Sr. in New York City. In 1861, it’s circulation was 81,000 and it billed itself as “the most largely circulated journal in the world.” Mr. Bennett once stated that the function of a newspaper was not to instruct “but to startle”.

Under the original ownership of Gordon Bennett Sr., the New York Herald was considered to be “the most invading and sensationalist of the leading New York papers… Its ability to entertain the public with timely daily news made it the leading circulation paper of its time.” (source)

The New York Herald was a bitter rival of the New York Tribune as well as the New York Times, and under mis-management by Gordon Bennett’s son, Gordon Bennett Jr., the paper began to decline. But not without some notable highlights. In 1869, Gordon Bennett Jr. famously assigned the writer Henry M. Stanley to find Dr. David Livingston in Africa, a successful mission that won him world acclaim. Bennett also “published the distinguished reports of J.A. MacGahan, providing evidence of Bulgarian atrocities that helped spark the Russo-Turkish War of 1871.” (source). Eventually, however his lavish spending – he once spent more on a yacht than on his newspaper business, and erratic behavior, such as “arriving late and drunk to a party at the May family mansion, then urinating into a fireplace in full view of his hosts” (source).

1924-1966. After his death, The New York Herald was merged with the New York Tribune and became known as the New York Herald Tribune.The new paper entered permanent popular consciousness in Jean Luc Godard’s 1961 classic Breathless, in which the main character, a French criminal, meets and falls in love with an American papergirl in Paris.

In 1964, assignment writer Tom Wolfe’s article for the Herald Tribune, “There Goes (Varoom! Varoom!) That Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby.” caused a stir and was widely discussed. “The editors of the Herald-Tribune encouraged their writers to break the conventions of newspaper writing…This was what Wolfe called New Journalism, in which some journalists and essayists experimented with a variety of literary techniques, mixing them with the traditional ideal of dispassionate, even-handed reporting.” (source.)

Unfortunately the Herald Tribune couldn’t compete with the rapidly expanding New York Times, and in 1966, the New York Herald Tribune ceased publication and its operations acquired. The new owners were the New York Times and the Washington Post, who spun the paper into an international edition still known today as The International Herald Tribune. (iht.com). The International Herald Tribune is now 100% owned by the New York Times and its printed daily is available in 180 countries.

Revival as an Un-affiliated Online Only Newspaper

Today’s New York Herald is a privately owned and federally registered trademark. The New York Herald exists online at nyherald.com and is wholly unaffiliated with either the original New-York Herald of 1802-1817 or Bennett’s New York Herald which ceased publication in 1924.

The current New York Herald claim no content from any period prior to 2008.

2008 – present. First use in commerce of The New York Herald. service mark began on June 14th, 2008, with the story about 16 year old Zac Sundarland’s Mission to Sail Around the World. The New York Herald is based in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.