The Philadelphia Bulletin
| "In Philadelphia, nearly everybody reads The Bulletin" | |
Philadelphia Bulletin Building, 1315-1325 Filbert Street, Philadelphia
(Edgar Viguers Seeler, architect) |
|
| Type | Daily newspaper |
|---|---|
| Owner(s) | Charter Company |
| Founder(s) | Alexander Cummings |
| Founded | April 17, 1847 |
| Language | English |
| Ceased publication | January 29, 1982 |
| Relaunched | 2004 |
| Headquarters | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States |
| Circulation | 761,000 (as of 1947) |
The Philadelphia Bulletin was a daily evening newspaper published from 1847 to 1982 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was the largest circulation newspaper in Philadelphia for 76 years and was once the largest evening newspaper in the United States. Its widely known slogan was: "In Philadelphia, nearly everybody reads The Bulletin."
Describing the Bulletin's style, publisher William L. McLean once said: "I think the Bulletin operates on a principle which in the long run is unbeatable. This is that it enters the reader's home as a guest. Therefore, it should behave as a guest, telling the news rather than shouting it." As Time magazine later noted: "In its news columns, the Bulletin was solid if unspectacular. Local affairs were covered extensively, but politely. Muckraking was frowned upon."
The Bulletin was first published by Alexander Cummings on April 17, 1847 as Cummings’ Evening Telegraphic Bulletin. It made history with its inaugural edition by publishing the first telegraph report in a U.S. newspaper, a dispatch from the Mexican War.
Cummings lost control of The Bulletin to stockholders in the 1850s. From 1859 until 1895, the paper was edited by Gibson Peacock.The Bulletin was last in circulation of Philadelphia's 13 daily newspapers for the remainder of the 19th century.
Upon Peacock's death, the paper was bought by businessman William L. McLean. When McLean bought the last-place Bulletin in 1895, it sold for 2 cents, equal to $0.58 today. McLean cut the price in half and increased coverage of local news. By 1905 the paper was the city's largest.
McLean's son Robert took over in 1931. Later in the 1930s, the paper bought WPEN, one of Philadelphia's early radio stations. In 1946, it acquired a construction permit for Philadelphia's third television station.
In 1947 the Bulletin bought out its evening competitor, The Philadelphia Record, and incorporated features of the Record's Sunday edition into the new Sunday Bulletin. By 1947 the Bulletin was the nation's biggest evening daily, with 761,000 readers. Along with the Record, it also acquired the rights to buy Philadelphia's third-oldest radio station, WCAU. In a complex deal, the Bulletin sold off WPEN and WCAU's FM sister, changed WPEN-FM's call letters to WCAU-FM, and the calls for its under-construction television station to WCAU-TV. The WCAU stations were sold to CBS in 1957.
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