SOURCES (see Bibliography for more details):

[1704-1719] The Boston News-Letter in 1704 [and 1710] had 300 readers; the Massachusetts Spy in 1775 claimed 3,000 readers. Kobre’s Development of the Colonial Newspaper, 165.

[1719] The earliest statement about newspaper circulation in the country was made by John Campbell in his Boston News-Letter on August 10, 1719… “he cannot vend 300 at an Impression, tho’ some ignorantly conclude he Sells upwards of a thousand.” Brigham’s Journals and Journeymen, 19.

[1740] In 1740, the British empire contained 60 newspapers, more or less (17 in London)… the circulation of each major London daily, intended for local distribution, averaged about 2000 copies. The thrice-weeklies, timed for the Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday post departures and aimed at a national circulation, averaged between 3000 and 5000 copies for each press run. This compared with a maximum of 600 for most American newspapers.  Clark’s Public Prints, 258.

[1750] With the increase in newspapers came an increase in circulation, as well. Newspapers in 1750, for example, had an average circulation of about 600 copies per week. By the Stamp Act crisis, these figures topped 1,500 in some towns and grew to more than 3,500 in some cases before the Revolution. It must be remembered that no colonial town had more than 15,000 inhabitants by 1750, and only three could boast populations between 20,000 and 30,000 by 1775. Also, most large colonial towns — Boston, New York, and Philadelphia, for example — had four or five newspapers; obviously, newspaper readership was sizable. Most literate people had access to newspapers, and newspapers, which were sold by subscription, were read aloud in taverns, making their information available to all within hearing. Copeland, viii.

[1754] In 1754, four newspapers only were printed in New England, these were all published in Boston, and, usually, on a small sheet; they were published weekly, and the average number of copies did not exceed six hundred from each press. Brigham, 19 (quoting Thomas, History of Printing, 8).

[1765, 1766] Circulations in the period ending in 1765 ranged from a few hundred to a thousand or more. At the middle of the century the Boston papers had an average circulation of 600. Possibly 5% of the white families in the colonies in 1765 received a newspaper weekly; but papers were passed from hand to hand, and each had many readers. Mott, 59 (attributed to Thomas, 187. It may be assumed to have been higher by 1765. Goddard would not return to Providence to revive his Gazette unless he could get a list of 800 in 1766. He failed to get it, but this may be taken as an indication that New York and Philadelphia papers enjoyed circulations of 800 or more.).

[1770] In 1770, the Boston Chronicle, having attained a circulation of 1,400 readers, lost its subscribers. Kobre, 117.

[1774] The New York Gazetteer (Royal Gazette) circulation reached more than 3,600 being distributed throughout the colonies wherever Tories lived and wanted to read a viewpoint that agreed with their own. (1774) Kobre, 141.

[1774] Rivington’s New York Gazetteer of October 31, 1774, boasted “The weekly impression of this Gazetter is lately increased to 3600″. Brigham, 19.

[1775] From the middle of 1774 to April, 1775, Edes claimed he sold 2,000 copies of the Gazette each weekly. Kobre, 126.

[1775] The Boston Gazette, which reached a circulation as high as 2,000 during the critical period (1774-1775), Kobre, 120 (years supported by Whelan’s biography on Benjamin Edes).

[1775] Isaiah Thomas eventually reached 3,500 of these workers with his Spy, securing one of the highest circulations in the colonial period (1770 to 1775). Kobre, 130.

[1775] In Boston, the circulation of the two leading revolutionary papers jumped during pre-Revolutionary crisis — to 2,000 for the Boston Gazette and to 3,500 for the Massachusetts Spy, according to their printers — but these were exceptional; the average circulation in New England was probably around 600 at the time. Starr, 68.

[1778] After the evacuation of New York by the British in 1776, the Connecticut Courant, of Hartford, leaped into a kind of leadership of Patriot papers in the North for some years… a great reputation as a spokesman for the Revolution; and, as it owned its own mill after 1776, it was not hampered by lack of paper. It is said to have reached 8,000 in 1778. This was a circulation of which London papers of those years might well have been jealous. But there were plenty of colonial papers which numbered their subscribers at only a few hundred throughout this period. Mott, 105.

[1776, 1779, 1781] Thomas, according to his statement in the Massachusetts Spy of December 21, 1780, had a pre-Revolutionary circulation  in Boston of 3,500 copies. Then he was driven out of Boston by the British invasion and established the Spy at the small inland town of Worcester. In 1775-76 his circulation was 1,500, in 1778-79 about 1,200, and in 1781 at best but 500. Yet, as Thomas remarked, “It has always been allowed that 600 customers, with a considerable number of advertisements, weekly, will but barely support the publication of a newspaper.” Brigham, 20.

[1780] The Spy subscribers, because of the war conditions, were reduced to 300. (1780) Kobre, 132.

[1790s] In the last decade of the 18th century the number of newspapers increased, but circulation did not keep step and in general averaged from 600 to 700. A few newspapers of the larger cities stood out such as the Maryland Journal of Baltimore which claimed a circulation “near 2000.” Brigham, 20-21.

[1790s] But the average for dailies, semiweeklies, and weeklies was very low even at the end of the century – perhaps between 600 and 700. Doubtless more people read a single copy of a newspaper in this period than later. Coffee houses and taverns maintained files of papers from all parts of the country, and Reading Rooms advertised ‘every paper of note, either in Europe or America’ (last decade of 18th century). Mott, 159.

[1790s, 1799] Frank L. Mott, in commenting upon circulations in this decade, says:  “The semi-weekly Columbian Centinel probably topped the list, with over 4000. Porcupine’s Gazette, a daily, claimed over 2000 early in 1799; this was as large a circulation as that of any English daily. The Aurora in its prime had about 1700. Brigham, 21 (quoting Mott’s American Journalism, 159).

[1800] Circulation growth was slight; for instance, a Boston newspaper had a circulation of 600 in 1765 and reached only 700 subscribers in 1800. Thorn, 39.

[1816] Joel Munsell, whose knowledge of newspapers was the widest for the first half of the nineteenth century, makes several interesting comments on circulations in the year 1816: “The number of papers issued by the New York press at that time was as follows: Mercantile Advertiser 2250, New York Gazette 1750, Evening Post 1600, Commercial Advertiser 1200″. Brigham, 21.

[1833] Yet the circulation of American newspapers remained small… the New York Courier and Enquirer, claiming 4,500 in 1833, was undoubtedly the largest paper in the country; few others had half of that, and the average daily circulation seems to have remained throughout the whole period in the neighborhood of 1,000. Mott, 202-3.

[1834] Even after 1820, circulation did not notably increase. Michael Chevalier, an observing French critic, writing of this country in 1834, remarked that: “The American newspapers are very numerous, but in consequence of their great number their circulation is comparatively small. There are few daily papers whose circulation exceeds 2000, and not one which exceeds 4000; that of most of the newspapers is not more than 400 or 500. The American newspapers have little resemblance to the French and English. They are chiefly mere advertising sheets; they do not direct public opinion, they follow it.” Brigham, 22 (quoting Society, Manners and Politics in the United States, 452).

[1860] The New York Herald at 77,000 in 1860 was the world’s largest daily paper, while the New York Weekly Tribune’s 200,000 and the New York Ledger’s 400,000 were considered marvelous. These figures will inevitably be compared with the far larger circulations of a later date, but it should be remembered that at the beginning of 1833 no American newspaper had as many as 5,000 subscribers. Mott, 303.

[1870, 1900] Between 1870 and 1900… their average circulation increased… from 2,600 to more than 15,000, with the largest newspapers exceeding half a million readers by the century’s end. Starr, 252.

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