How People Got Their News

In this era of instant news and information at our fingertips, it may be hard to remember that it wasn't always this way. One or two hundred years ago, newspapers were the primary vehicle for news and great effort went into their production and distribution. 

BlogTO has an article about the history of newspaper production and distribution in Toronto in the 19th and early 20th century. It's worth reading for a bit of perspective on our information-saturated times.

I found this part especially poignant. 

At the tail end of the 19th century, Toronto was a bustling city of just over 180,000 people. A number of papers competed for readers’ attentions.

Newsstands were manned by newsboys and newsgirls. These children were often homeless, eking out a precarious living by selling newspapers, shoelaces, pencils, and shining shoes.

Sometimes, these children would take refuge in cheap lodgings in the downtown core, or at the local newsboys’ home (a charitable institution set up by George W. Allan in the late 19th century). 

Legislation by the Ontario government in 1893 aimed at providing a more stable life for the city’s homeless children by getting them off the streets, but child labour and precarious living persisted well into the twentieth century.