WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.980 Welcome back to the deep dive. Today, we're going 00:00:01.980 --> 00:00:05.019 to do something that might seem a little counterintuitive. 00:00:05.099 --> 00:00:07.559 We're going to look at a stack of old papers. 00:00:07.580 --> 00:00:10.240 Right. And I don't mean, you know, secret government 00:00:10.240 --> 00:00:13.759 documents. I mean, a newspaper, specifically 00:00:13.759 --> 00:00:17.620 the Arizona Minor. Oh, boy. I could just feel 00:00:17.620 --> 00:00:20.339 the listeners eyes glazing over already. The 00:00:20.339 --> 00:00:23.280 Arizona Minor. It sounds like a newsletter you'd 00:00:23.280 --> 00:00:26.879 find in a dentist's office in like 1950. Exactly. 00:00:26.879 --> 00:00:29.239 It sounds like some dusty old business ledger. 00:00:29.300 --> 00:00:31.199 You expect to open it up and see, I don't know, 00:00:31.280 --> 00:00:33.399 the price of copper, a list of cattle brands 00:00:33.399 --> 00:00:36.039 and a weather report that just says hot. Right. 00:00:36.159 --> 00:00:37.979 But once I actually started digging into the 00:00:37.979 --> 00:00:40.700 source material you sent over. Right. Wow. This 00:00:40.700 --> 00:00:42.920 is not a story about accounting. Not even close. 00:00:43.079 --> 00:00:45.020 This story about, well, it's about journalism, 00:00:45.060 --> 00:00:48.159 sure. But it's journalism with a rifle strapped 00:00:48.159 --> 00:00:50.600 to your back. It's about printing the news while 00:00:50.600 --> 00:00:53.100 your office. is literally a military target. 00:00:53.200 --> 00:00:55.859 It really reframes the whole idea of freedom 00:00:55.859 --> 00:00:57.960 of the press, doesn't it? Yeah. We think of that 00:00:57.960 --> 00:01:00.359 legally, you know, publishing without censorship. 00:01:00.560 --> 00:01:02.960 But in the Arizona territory in the 1860s, the 00:01:02.960 --> 00:01:05.709 challenge wasn't legal. It was physical. The 00:01:05.709 --> 00:01:07.750 infrastructure wasn't servers and fiber optics. 00:01:07.829 --> 00:01:10.930 It was a wagon, a mule, and a whole lot of gunpowder. 00:01:10.969 --> 00:01:14.030 So that is the mission for this deep dive. We're 00:01:14.030 --> 00:01:16.290 going to track the life of this newspaper, the 00:01:16.290 --> 00:01:19.609 oldest one in Arizona, founded way back in 1864. 00:01:20.109 --> 00:01:21.909 We're going to follow it from its birth in a 00:01:21.909 --> 00:01:24.670 military fort all the way to its death during 00:01:24.670 --> 00:01:26.739 the Great Depression. And we're using it as a 00:01:26.739 --> 00:01:28.859 lens because if you want to understand how the 00:01:28.859 --> 00:01:31.319 American West was actually settled, not the movie 00:01:31.319 --> 00:01:34.480 version, but the gritty logistical reality. Yeah. 00:01:34.890 --> 00:01:36.329 You have to look at how they moved information. 00:01:36.629 --> 00:01:39.189 And honestly, reading about the working conditions 00:01:39.189 --> 00:01:41.969 these reporters dealt with, it makes my complaints 00:01:41.969 --> 00:01:45.829 about slow office Wi -Fi feel pretty embarrassing. 00:01:45.989 --> 00:01:48.010 It definitely puts the modern media landscape 00:01:48.010 --> 00:01:50.750 into a very, very sharp perspective. So let's 00:01:50.750 --> 00:01:53.530 rewind. We are dropping into 1864. So the Civil 00:01:53.530 --> 00:01:56.090 War is still raging back east. Arizona has just 00:01:56.090 --> 00:01:58.930 been carved out as a territory. It's wild. It's 00:01:58.930 --> 00:02:01.709 dangerous. And it's politically chaotic. And 00:02:01.709 --> 00:02:04.650 into this mess walks a guy named... Richard C. 00:02:04.870 --> 00:02:07.450 McCormick. Richard C. McCormick. He was the territorial 00:02:07.450 --> 00:02:09.650 secretary. Yeah. So essentially one of the guys 00:02:09.650 --> 00:02:11.889 in charge of setting up the new government. And 00:02:11.889 --> 00:02:14.550 he decides that this territory needs a voice. 00:02:14.569 --> 00:02:17.469 It needs a newspaper. But here's the problem. 00:02:17.870 --> 00:02:21.310 You are in the middle of nowhere. You can't just 00:02:21.310 --> 00:02:23.409 order a printing press on Amazon. Far from it. 00:02:23.430 --> 00:02:27.009 No. McCormick has to. physically go get the means 00:02:27.009 --> 00:02:29.349 of production. He travels to Santa Fe, New Mexico. 00:02:29.509 --> 00:02:32.650 He buys a press. And this is probably a heavy 00:02:32.650 --> 00:02:35.189 cast iron Washington hand press. I mean, we're 00:02:35.189 --> 00:02:37.310 talking hundreds of pounds of dead weight. And 00:02:37.310 --> 00:02:39.370 he has to haul it all the way to Arizona. Right. 00:02:39.469 --> 00:02:41.610 And the source material paints this incredible 00:02:41.610 --> 00:02:45.229 picture. He loads this heavy industrial machine 00:02:45.229 --> 00:02:48.490 into... government wagons. And it's sitting right 00:02:48.490 --> 00:02:50.870 there alongside his personal belongings. His 00:02:50.870 --> 00:02:52.789 personal belongings. His chairs, his clothes, 00:02:52.990 --> 00:02:55.229 his desk. I love that image. It's the ultimate 00:02:55.229 --> 00:02:57.150 road trip from hell. You're hauling a printing 00:02:57.150 --> 00:02:59.370 press across the desert over these non -existent 00:02:59.370 --> 00:03:02.210 roads. If a wheel breaks, the government, you 00:03:02.210 --> 00:03:05.110 know, loses its voice. Exactly. And this gets 00:03:05.110 --> 00:03:07.389 to a crucial point about why he was doing it. 00:03:07.810 --> 00:03:09.969 McCormick didn't start the paper just to report 00:03:09.969 --> 00:03:12.990 the weather. Historians call the paper the creature 00:03:12.990 --> 00:03:15.370 of the new territorial government. So it was 00:03:15.370 --> 00:03:17.939 a tool. It was about legitimacy. If you have 00:03:17.939 --> 00:03:19.680 a newspaper, you have a government, you have 00:03:19.680 --> 00:03:22.719 civilization. It proves to the world and to D 00:03:22.719 --> 00:03:25.520 .C. that this territory is organized. So they 00:03:25.520 --> 00:03:28.699 haul this thing all the way, but they don't set 00:03:28.699 --> 00:03:32.180 up in a nice downtown office. No. The first issue, 00:03:32.259 --> 00:03:36.139 which hits the streets on March 9th, 1864, isn't 00:03:36.139 --> 00:03:38.379 published in a town. It's published at Fort Whipple. 00:03:38.520 --> 00:03:40.659 A military fort. A military fort. And that is 00:03:40.659 --> 00:03:42.479 not a coincidence. This wasn't a commercial enterprise. 00:03:42.979 --> 00:03:45.560 It was published under explicit military protection. 00:03:45.979 --> 00:03:49.199 The sources you sent had a quote that just, it 00:03:49.199 --> 00:03:51.479 stuck with me. It said the staff worked with 00:03:51.479 --> 00:03:54.360 rifles strapped to their backs. It's a vivid 00:03:54.360 --> 00:03:56.819 detail, isn't it? It's cinematic. I mean, imagine 00:03:56.819 --> 00:03:58.580 the scene, you're a typesetter, you're standing 00:03:58.580 --> 00:04:00.479 there picking out these tiny little lead letters, 00:04:00.620 --> 00:04:03.719 A -R -I, and the whole time you have a loaded 00:04:03.719 --> 00:04:05.580 weapon on your body because you were literally 00:04:05.580 --> 00:04:08.539 working in a conflict zone. It's a fascinating 00:04:08.539 --> 00:04:10.860 tension. You're doing this very intellectual, 00:04:11.080 --> 00:04:16.089 civilized act writing. editing, while being prepared 00:04:16.089 --> 00:04:20.250 for immediate violence. Wow. The press was the 00:04:20.250 --> 00:04:22.189 only thing connecting them to the world, but 00:04:22.189 --> 00:04:24.689 the environment was actively hostile. It's civilization 00:04:24.689 --> 00:04:28.189 as an act of defiance. We are going to print 00:04:28.189 --> 00:04:30.550 this paper, even if we have to shoot our way 00:04:30.550 --> 00:04:33.129 out of the office. Precisely. Now, they didn't 00:04:33.129 --> 00:04:35.529 stay at the fort for long. The government moved 00:04:35.529 --> 00:04:37.990 the capital to Prescott. Right. After just six 00:04:37.990 --> 00:04:41.310 issues, the paper follows. The whole... Circus 00:04:41.310 --> 00:04:44.649 wagons, press -type cases, moves to Prescott, 00:04:44.829 --> 00:04:47.449 the new capital. So they're in a town now. You'd 00:04:47.449 --> 00:04:49.350 think, okay, maybe things can relax a little 00:04:49.350 --> 00:04:51.310 bit, maybe take their rifles off. You would hope 00:04:51.310 --> 00:04:54.490 so. But the move didn't mean safety. In fact, 00:04:54.550 --> 00:04:56.629 this brings us to one of the most tragic figures 00:04:56.629 --> 00:05:00.069 in the paper's history, a young man named Emmett 00:05:00.069 --> 00:05:02.569 A. Bentley. This part of the timeline really 00:05:02.569 --> 00:05:04.829 shook me. Because we talk about risk in business, 00:05:04.949 --> 00:05:06.649 but this is just a different universe of risk. 00:05:06.870 --> 00:05:10.629 Bentley became the editor in July 1866. He was 00:05:10.629 --> 00:05:14.110 young, born in Iowa, came out west in 63. By 00:05:14.110 --> 00:05:15.490 the time he's running the paper, he's in his 00:05:15.490 --> 00:05:18.029 mid -20s. He's the voice of the town. So a young 00:05:18.029 --> 00:05:20.509 guy, ambitious, running the biggest media outlet 00:05:20.509 --> 00:05:24.589 in the territory. And then, February 1867, he 00:05:24.589 --> 00:05:26.769 goes out to Weaver Mountain. And this is where 00:05:26.769 --> 00:05:29.009 the reality of the era just crashes right into 00:05:29.009 --> 00:05:31.009 the story. This was the height of the Apache 00:05:31.009 --> 00:05:33.980 Wars. Bentley was attacked on the mountain. He 00:05:33.980 --> 00:05:36.879 was shot. But he didn't die there. No. And this 00:05:36.879 --> 00:05:39.839 is the detail that is so haunting. He was wounded, 00:05:39.980 --> 00:05:42.480 probably gravely. He was brought back to Prescott. 00:05:42.500 --> 00:05:45.339 He survived for a few days. And the historical 00:05:45.339 --> 00:05:47.800 records state he died inside the newspaper's 00:05:47.800 --> 00:05:50.750 office. He was only 27 years old. Dying in the 00:05:50.750 --> 00:05:53.230 newsroom. It's just a stark reminder. We often 00:05:53.230 --> 00:05:55.009 think of journalists as observers, you know, 00:05:55.009 --> 00:05:57.149 the person on the sidelines taking notes. The 00:05:57.149 --> 00:05:59.149 impartial observer, right? Exactly. But in the 00:05:59.149 --> 00:06:01.430 Arizona territory, the journalists weren't observers. 00:06:01.689 --> 00:06:03.529 They were participants. They were living and 00:06:03.529 --> 00:06:05.550 dying right alongside the miners and soldiers 00:06:05.550 --> 00:06:07.569 they were writing about. It just changes how 00:06:07.569 --> 00:06:10.500 you read the headlines from that era. The person 00:06:10.500 --> 00:06:13.540 writing the copy was literally bleeding for the 00:06:13.540 --> 00:06:16.699 paper. It does. And it explains why the tone 00:06:16.699 --> 00:06:19.060 of the journalism was so different. The minor 00:06:19.060 --> 00:06:21.720 wasn't objective. It couldn't be. It was fighting 00:06:21.720 --> 00:06:23.939 for its own survival. Which brings us to the 00:06:23.939 --> 00:06:26.800 next big phase. If the physical danger wasn't 00:06:26.800 --> 00:06:29.060 enough, the political danger starts to ramp up. 00:06:29.160 --> 00:06:33.639 Right. So the paper changes hands in 1867. McCormick, 00:06:33.680 --> 00:06:35.920 the government founder, sells it to a man named 00:06:35.920 --> 00:06:38.730 John H. Marion. And this is a huge pivot point. 00:06:38.850 --> 00:06:41.730 If McCormick was the establishment, Marion was 00:06:41.730 --> 00:06:44.610 something else. Something else is a polite way 00:06:44.610 --> 00:06:47.649 to put it. Marion was a firebrand. Okay, let's 00:06:47.649 --> 00:06:50.209 untack Marion, because his bio in the notes, 00:06:50.370 --> 00:06:53.250 he sounds like a character out of a movie. He 00:06:53.250 --> 00:06:56.100 was from New Orleans. He came west to prospect 00:06:56.100 --> 00:06:58.500 for gold and silver, which is why the name Minor 00:06:58.500 --> 00:07:00.839 fit him so well. But he realized the real power 00:07:00.839 --> 00:07:02.379 wasn't in the ground. It was in the printing 00:07:02.379 --> 00:07:05.000 press. Now, under McCormick, the paper had been 00:07:05.000 --> 00:07:07.199 pretty tame, right? Standard government announcements. 00:07:07.680 --> 00:07:10.240 Relatively, yeah. It leaned Republican because 00:07:10.240 --> 00:07:12.259 it was an organ of the federally appointed government. 00:07:12.399 --> 00:07:14.680 It covered the legislature, Lincoln's reelection. 00:07:14.839 --> 00:07:17.540 Yeah. It was trying to be respectable. Although, 00:07:17.819 --> 00:07:22.280 to be fair, McCormick did have his critics. Chief 00:07:22.280 --> 00:07:24.939 Justice William F. Turner accused him of using 00:07:24.939 --> 00:07:27.500 the paper for personal gain. Of course, corruption 00:07:27.500 --> 00:07:29.899 in the media, not a new complaint. Not at all. 00:07:29.959 --> 00:07:33.279 But then Marion takes over and he just cranks 00:07:33.279 --> 00:07:36.259 the volume up to 11. Marion was a Democrat and 00:07:36.259 --> 00:07:39.120 he was combative. He saw the paper as a political 00:07:39.120 --> 00:07:40.920 weapon. And we have to talk about the actual 00:07:40.920 --> 00:07:43.100 language he used because it's important we share 00:07:43.100 --> 00:07:44.860 this, not to endorse it, obviously, but just 00:07:44.860 --> 00:07:49.139 to understand the mindset of 1867 Arizona. We 00:07:49.139 --> 00:07:51.019 have to look at the historical record impartially. 00:07:51.799 --> 00:07:54.459 Marion branded the minor with two slogans. The 00:07:54.459 --> 00:07:56.660 first was the official paper of Arizona Standard 00:07:56.660 --> 00:07:58.939 Suffrage. Okay. But the second one was the Organ 00:07:58.939 --> 00:08:01.339 of the White People of Arizona. Wow. He just, 00:08:01.420 --> 00:08:04.180 he put it right on the masthead. He did. And 00:08:04.180 --> 00:08:06.439 that tells you everything you need to know about 00:08:06.439 --> 00:08:08.439 the political and racial climate of the frontier. 00:08:08.959 --> 00:08:12.019 It was intensely polarized. He wasn't trying 00:08:12.019 --> 00:08:15.319 to be inclusive. He was explicitly catering to 00:08:15.319 --> 00:08:17.899 a specific demographic. The sources describe 00:08:17.899 --> 00:08:21.100 his writing as racist and aggressive. He was 00:08:21.100 --> 00:08:23.980 relentless. He used the paper to launch just 00:08:23.980 --> 00:08:26.360 biting attacks on his enemies. Now, in modern 00:08:26.360 --> 00:08:28.879 business, you'd think alienating a huge chunk 00:08:28.879 --> 00:08:31.660 of people is a bad strategy. But what happened 00:08:31.660 --> 00:08:34.200 to the miners' business under Marion? It boomed. 00:08:34.360 --> 00:08:36.840 Of course it did. Controversy sells. Anger engages. 00:08:37.100 --> 00:08:39.200 It's a lesson the media learned very early on. 00:08:39.620 --> 00:08:41.740 Marion claims that he grew circulation from less 00:08:41.740 --> 00:08:45.659 than 75 readers to 672. That's almost a 10 times 00:08:45.659 --> 00:08:48.700 increase. It is. And the advertising grew significantly 00:08:48.700 --> 00:08:52.019 from half a column to several columns of paid 00:08:52.019 --> 00:08:55.360 ads. So he basically invented the rage bait engagement 00:08:55.360 --> 00:08:59.000 model in 1867. You could absolutely say that. 00:08:59.080 --> 00:09:01.820 He proved that a strong, polarizing voice was 00:09:01.820 --> 00:09:04.700 often more commercially viable. than a dry, government 00:09:04.700 --> 00:09:07.039 -approved one. He turned the miner into a real 00:09:07.039 --> 00:09:09.080 business. But of course, nothing lasts forever. 00:09:09.279 --> 00:09:11.799 The pendulum eventually swings back. Always does. 00:09:12.240 --> 00:09:15.759 In 1877, Marion sold the paper to a man named 00:09:15.759 --> 00:09:19.919 Charles W. Beach. And just like that, the editorial 00:09:19.919 --> 00:09:22.759 stance flipped right back to its Republican roots. 00:09:23.360 --> 00:09:26.179 It's amazing how fast the truth changes depending 00:09:26.179 --> 00:09:28.700 on who's signing the checks. It's like watching 00:09:28.700 --> 00:09:30.879 a cable news channel change ownership today. 00:09:30.940 --> 00:09:33.299 Suddenly the narrative just flips 180 degrees. 00:09:33.679 --> 00:09:36.080 It's not a new phenomenon. The media landscape 00:09:36.080 --> 00:09:38.240 has always been subject to the whims of ownership. 00:09:38.519 --> 00:09:41.159 Speaking of whims, we need to talk about the 00:09:41.159 --> 00:09:43.360 branding. Because if I was a subscriber to this 00:09:43.360 --> 00:09:45.320 paper, I think I would have had a migraine trying 00:09:45.320 --> 00:09:47.200 to figure out what it was even called. The branding 00:09:47.200 --> 00:09:50.419 strategy was... Fluid. Fluid is very generous. 00:09:50.419 --> 00:09:52.360 I was looking at the list of name changes. It's 00:09:52.360 --> 00:09:55.279 like they were having an identity crisis every 00:09:55.279 --> 00:09:57.179 six months. It certainly looks that way from 00:09:57.179 --> 00:09:59.759 the outside. Okay, walk me through this. It starts 00:09:59.759 --> 00:10:02.740 as the Republican Fort Whipple, Arizona Minor. 00:10:02.919 --> 00:10:04.860 Right, that was the monthly version at the Fort. 00:10:05.120 --> 00:10:07.419 Very descriptive. Then it becomes just the Arizona 00:10:07.419 --> 00:10:09.600 Minor. Then suddenly it's the Weekly Arizona 00:10:09.600 --> 00:10:12.279 Minor. That was in 1868. But then they just swapped 00:10:12.279 --> 00:10:14.720 the words. It becomes the Arizona Weekly Minor. 00:10:15.100 --> 00:10:17.299 Which, to a librarian, is a totally different 00:10:17.299 --> 00:10:19.679 publication. And then, just to be fancy, they 00:10:19.679 --> 00:10:24.860 add a the, the weekly Arizona minor. Very dignified. 00:10:25.139 --> 00:10:27.659 And eventually becomes the Arizona weekly journal 00:10:27.659 --> 00:10:30.919 minor. Was this just indecision? Was there no 00:10:30.919 --> 00:10:32.759 marketing department saying, hey guys, let's 00:10:32.759 --> 00:10:35.240 maybe pick a lane? It seems comical, but there 00:10:35.240 --> 00:10:38.340 was usually a business logic behind it. For example, 00:10:38.480 --> 00:10:41.259 the switch to weekly. When a guy named Benjamin 00:10:41.259 --> 00:10:44.179 H. Weaver joined, they suddenly had the resources, 00:10:44.419 --> 00:10:47.639 the manpower. To publish weekly instead of semi 00:10:47.639 --> 00:10:50.700 -monthly. Okay. So that's a huge change in workflow. 00:10:51.019 --> 00:10:53.539 It is. You have to produce twice as much content. 00:10:53.720 --> 00:10:56.059 Yeah. So changing the name to weekly wasn't just 00:10:56.059 --> 00:10:58.639 a tweak. It was a flex. It was bragging to advertisers. 00:10:58.879 --> 00:11:01.399 Look how capable we are now. So the name change 00:11:01.399 --> 00:11:04.220 was a signal of growth. Exactly. And we should 00:11:04.220 --> 00:11:05.919 forget there was actually a daily edition for 00:11:05.919 --> 00:11:08.220 a while too. An Arizona Daily Minor. Yep. From 00:11:08.220 --> 00:11:12.940 about 1873 to 1885. Wow. Imagine printing a daily 00:11:12.940 --> 00:11:15.179 paper handsetting the type in a mining town in 00:11:15.179 --> 00:11:17.639 the 1870s. The pressure must have been immense. 00:11:17.860 --> 00:11:20.419 It was a bustling operation. But that constant 00:11:20.419 --> 00:11:23.700 change in names also signaled instability. Mergers, 00:11:23.899 --> 00:11:26.539 new partners, new owners. Every time the money 00:11:26.539 --> 00:11:30.460 changed, the name on the door changed. So, we've 00:11:30.460 --> 00:11:33.620 survived attacks, we've survived political mudslinging, 00:11:33.639 --> 00:11:36.539 and we've survived a branding crisis. But we 00:11:36.539 --> 00:11:38.159 haven't talked about the one thing that seems 00:11:38.159 --> 00:11:40.100 to happen to every wooden building in the Old 00:11:40.100 --> 00:11:43.360 West. Fire. The great leveler. It's almost inevitable 00:11:43.360 --> 00:11:46.799 in these histories. On July 14th, 1900, disaster 00:11:46.799 --> 00:11:49.200 struck. The publishing office was completely 00:11:49.200 --> 00:11:51.519 destroyed. And we need to clarify what destroyed 00:11:51.519 --> 00:11:55.159 means in 1900. There's no cloud backup, no Google 00:11:55.159 --> 00:11:58.299 Drive. No. If the office burns, the history burns. 00:11:58.519 --> 00:12:01.200 The archives, the back issues, the lists. And 00:12:01.200 --> 00:12:03.299 the physical capital. The presses, the type cases, 00:12:03.419 --> 00:12:05.980 all of it melted or turned to ash. It's a total 00:12:05.980 --> 00:12:08.620 loss. For most businesses, that is the end. But 00:12:08.620 --> 00:12:11.039 they didn't fold. No. And this speaks to the 00:12:11.039 --> 00:12:13.700 sheer resilience of the organization. They scrambled. 00:12:13.820 --> 00:12:15.919 They published a temporary daily edition for 00:12:15.919 --> 00:12:17.820 about a month, probably on a borrowed press, 00:12:18.039 --> 00:12:20.840 just to keep the news flowing. That is dedication. 00:12:21.240 --> 00:12:24.179 Our building is ash, but here's the news. And 00:12:24.179 --> 00:12:26.299 then they moved into a small brick building on 00:12:26.299 --> 00:12:28.899 West Gurley Street. Brick being the key word 00:12:28.899 --> 00:12:30.500 there. We're not doing the wood thing again. 00:12:30.980 --> 00:12:34.179 Exactly. And this period, post -fire, really 00:12:34.179 --> 00:12:36.909 marked the transition into the modern era. We 00:12:36.909 --> 00:12:39.350 leave the frontier phase and enter the industrial 00:12:39.350 --> 00:12:43.009 phase. What was the big leap? Technology. In 00:12:43.009 --> 00:12:46.529 1904, they get the Linotype machine. Okay, for 00:12:46.529 --> 00:12:48.590 those of us who aren't print nerds, explain why 00:12:48.590 --> 00:12:51.509 the Linotype is such a huge deal. So before this, 00:12:51.730 --> 00:12:55.750 every single letter, every E, every comma, had 00:12:55.750 --> 00:12:58.070 to be picked by hand from a box and lined up. 00:12:58.169 --> 00:13:00.990 It was incredibly slow. Painstaking. The Linotype 00:13:00.990 --> 00:13:03.289 changed everything. It was a machine with a keyboard. 00:13:03.789 --> 00:13:05.850 You type a line of text and the machine melts 00:13:05.850 --> 00:13:08.610 lead and casts a solid line of type right there. 00:13:08.730 --> 00:13:10.330 So it's the difference between handwriting a 00:13:10.330 --> 00:13:12.850 letter and typing an email. It's a massive leap 00:13:12.850 --> 00:13:15.169 in efficiency. It'll let them print more pages 00:13:15.169 --> 00:13:18.889 faster with fewer people. And around then, they 00:13:18.889 --> 00:13:20.750 also became a franchise of the Associated Press. 00:13:20.990 --> 00:13:23.590 That's a huge shift in content. Now they're not 00:13:23.590 --> 00:13:25.649 just relying on rumors from wagons. They're plugged 00:13:25.649 --> 00:13:27.830 into the national wire. They're part of the global 00:13:27.830 --> 00:13:30.350 network, getting news from New York, London, 00:13:30.470 --> 00:13:33.379 Washington almost instantly. Bye -bye 1914. By 00:13:33.379 --> 00:13:35.539 1914, they've moved into a two -story building 00:13:35.539 --> 00:13:39.360 with a Goss web -perfecting press. Web -perfecting? 00:13:39.360 --> 00:13:41.620 Sounds fancy. What's that? It's the grandfather 00:13:41.620 --> 00:13:44.600 of the modern newspaper press. Instead of feeding 00:13:44.600 --> 00:13:47.500 single sheets of paper by hand, a web press takes 00:13:47.500 --> 00:13:50.139 a giant roll of paper, feeds it through continuously, 00:13:50.340 --> 00:13:52.919 and prints on both sides at once. So we are talking 00:13:52.919 --> 00:13:55.860 about speed. Serious industrial speed. We are 00:13:55.860 --> 00:13:58.899 a long, long way from Richard McCormick hauling 00:13:58.899 --> 00:14:01.659 a hand press across the desert. We are now in 00:14:01.659 --> 00:14:03.879 the age of mass media. It's a complete evolution 00:14:03.879 --> 00:14:07.440 from a fort to a factory. Basically, yes. But 00:14:07.440 --> 00:14:10.759 all things come to an end. Sadly, yes. The minor 00:14:10.759 --> 00:14:12.820 or the journal minor, as it was known by then, 00:14:12.899 --> 00:14:15.679 finally reached the end of the line. April 1934. 00:14:15.899 --> 00:14:18.559 Now, the source notes don't explicitly say the 00:14:18.559 --> 00:14:21.120 Great Depression killed the paper, but the date 00:14:21.120 --> 00:14:25.340 is 1934. It's hard to ignore the context. 1934 00:14:25.340 --> 00:14:28.840 was the absolute depth of the Depression. Advertising 00:14:28.840 --> 00:14:32.059 revenue had plummeted. Mines were closing. People 00:14:32.059 --> 00:14:34.559 just didn't have money for subscriptions. It's 00:14:34.559 --> 00:14:36.740 very likely the economy finally caught up with 00:14:36.740 --> 00:14:39.759 them. So after 70 years, the press has stopped. 00:14:40.019 --> 00:14:42.279 It's quite a run, though. Think about the arc. 00:14:42.480 --> 00:14:45.379 It started before the Civil War ended. born in 00:14:45.379 --> 00:14:48.080 a wagon, protected by soldiers. It survived the 00:14:48.080 --> 00:14:50.840 Apache Wars. It saw the territory become a state. 00:14:50.980 --> 00:14:53.559 It fueled political fires. It burned down and 00:14:53.559 --> 00:14:55.940 rose from the ashes. And it eventually hooked 00:14:55.940 --> 00:14:58.120 up to the Global Information Network. It really 00:14:58.120 --> 00:15:00.460 is the story of Arizona in a nutshell. It is. 00:15:00.639 --> 00:15:03.600 It's the story of how a rough, violent frontier 00:15:03.600 --> 00:15:06.679 transformed into a structured, modern society. 00:15:07.210 --> 00:15:09.549 And the newspaper was the diary of that entire 00:15:09.549 --> 00:15:11.690 life. You know, it makes me think we live in 00:15:11.690 --> 00:15:14.169 this age where news is instant. My phone buzzes 00:15:14.169 --> 00:15:16.090 and I know what happened five seconds ago on 00:15:16.090 --> 00:15:17.990 the other side of the world. And honestly, I 00:15:17.990 --> 00:15:20.029 swipe it away half the time. I take it for granted. 00:15:20.190 --> 00:15:22.389 We all do. It's low cost information. It's everywhere. 00:15:22.990 --> 00:15:25.590 Exactly. But when you look at the Arizona minor, 00:15:25.769 --> 00:15:29.629 the cost of that information was incredibly high. 00:15:29.950 --> 00:15:33.970 People risked their lives, literally died to 00:15:33.970 --> 00:15:36.700 get those words on a page. It raises a fascinating 00:15:36.700 --> 00:15:39.679 question about value. Does the ease of access 00:15:39.679 --> 00:15:43.179 devalue the information? When Emmett Bentley 00:15:43.179 --> 00:15:46.080 died to get the paper out, that paper meant something 00:15:46.080 --> 00:15:48.580 profound to the community. It was a lifeline. 00:15:48.879 --> 00:15:50.480 That is the thought I want to leave you with 00:15:50.480 --> 00:15:52.700 today. Next time you get a news alert and you're 00:15:52.700 --> 00:15:54.820 annoyed by the distraction, just take a second. 00:15:55.539 --> 00:15:57.440 Imagine the guy with the rifle strapped to his 00:15:57.440 --> 00:15:59.679 back or the editor dying in his office just so 00:15:59.679 --> 00:16:02.080 the community could know what was going on. Would 00:16:02.080 --> 00:16:04.620 we value our news differently if we remembered 00:16:04.620 --> 00:16:07.259 the price that used to be paid for it? It's certainly 00:16:07.259 --> 00:16:08.940 something to think about. Thanks for diving in 00:16:08.940 --> 00:16:09.840 with us. We'll see you next time.