Before the days of the musical Newsies, “newsies” was the nickname given to describe newspaper boys in the late 1800s and early 1900s. In the 1890s, hundreds of young girls and boys sold newspapers throughout New York City. They would be able to purchase a stack of newspapers for 65 cents then spend their days walking up and down the streets, shouting headlines, and advertising their newspapers in an effort to sell them. Selling the papers at one cent each, if the newsies sold their whole stack of newspapers, they made 35 cents.
The price of newspapers jumped from 65 cents to 85 cents in 1898, as a result of the Spanish-American War. The publisher felt it was easier to sell more papers, as the headlines were more interesting and intriguing to the public. After the war was over, all but two newspaper publishers brought their prices down. Joseph Pulitzer ran New York Evening World, while William Randolph Hearst oversaw New York Evening Journal. With the increased prices, the newsies had trouble selling their newspapers, and they made a lower profit, making it increasingly difficult for them to survive.
In July of 1899, a small group of the newsies got together and decided that they wanted to boycott the newspapers. They soon convinced hundreds of other newsies to join in their cause. Not only did they stop buying and selling New York Evening World and New York Evening Journal, they also organized a strike to convince others to stop buying the newspapers. The newsies marched across the Brooklyn Bridge and stopped traffic for several hours, which prevented newspapers from being delivered. Hearst and Pulitzer took notice and struck an agreement with the newspaper boys. While they would not lower their prices back to 65 cents, they would purchase back any newspapers the newsies were unable to sell.