journalism Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the " news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation (p ...

, the society page of a

newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, spor ...

is largely or entirely devoted to the social and cultural events and gossip of the location covered. Other features that frequently appear on the society page are a calendar of charity events and pictures of locally, nationally and internationally famous people. Society pages expanded to become

women's page The women's page (sometimes called home page or women's section) of a newspaper was a section devoted to covering news assumed to be of interest to women. Women's pages started out in the 19th century as society pages and eventually morphed into ...

sections.

History

The first true society page in the United States was the invention of newspaper owner James Gordon Bennett Jr., who created it for the ''

New York Herald The ''New York Herald'' was a large-distribution newspaper based in New York City that existed between 1835 and 1924. At that point it was acquired by its smaller rival the '' New-York Tribune'' to form the '' New York Herald Tribune''. Hi ...

'' in 1835. His reportage centred upon the lives and social gatherings of the rich and famous, with names partially deleted by dashes and reports mildly satirical. Mott et al record that "Society was at first aghast, then amused, then complacent, and finally hungry for the penny-press stories of its own doings." Bennett had in fact been reporting such news since 1827, with articles in the '' New York Enquirer''. In the period after the

United States Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...

, there were many newly rich people in the country, and reportage of their antics, sometimes tasteless and gauche, was of considerable entertainment value. By 1885,

Ward McAllister Samuel Ward McAllister (December 28, 1827 – January 31, 1895) was a popular arbiter of social taste in the Gilded Age of late 19th-century America. He was widely accepted as the authority as to which families could be classified as the cream o ...

had been recruited to report on society news for the ''

New York World The ''New York World'' was a newspaper published in New York City from 1860 until 1931. The paper played a major role in the history of American newspapers. It was a leading national voice of the Democratic Party. From 1883 to 1911 under pub ...

'' by

Joseph Pulitzer Joseph Pulitzer ( ; born Pulitzer József, ; April 10, 1847 – October 29, 1911) was a Hungarian-American politician and newspaper publisher of the '' St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' and the ''New York World''. He became a leading national figure in ...

, and it was around that time that society reporting, both on dedicated society pages and in the new Sunday supplements, became very popular. Society pages and society reporting was prevalent in the New York daily newspapers from the winter of 1880 onward. The previous year, Pearl Rivers had transplanted the notion to New Orleans, where she had begun the ''Society Bee'', a local society column, on March 16, 1879. Again, the initial reaction was shock. Rivers reported, in the ''Society Bee'' itself of course, the reaction of one woman who was, "opposed to print on principle". Print applied to persons is her special horror and abomination ... poison only fit for politics, Associated Press dispatches, and police reports. She thought me very wrong to mention any ladies' names in a newspaper. She said

hat A hat is a head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorporate mecha ...

it was 'shabby' and 'shoddy' and 'shameful'." But Rivers persevered, and a decade later, on November 2, 1890, the column, now simply titled ''Society'', was the largest part of the Sunday paper carrying it. By 1900, most daily newspapers had a

that covered local high society as well as fashion. The goal in any case was to attract women as readers, and attract subscribers by promising a new audience for consumer advertising. Women's pages in general covered issues intended to attract the readership of the stereotypical American housewife of the time: society news, fashion, food, relationships, etiquette, health, homemaking, interior decorating, and family issues. One of the most prominent leaders was Marjorie Paxson. She began her career for a wire service during World War I, when male reporters were scarce. When they returned she went to the women's page in Houston, Texas. In the 1950s she moved to women's section of the ''

Miami Herald The ''Miami Herald'' is an American daily newspaper owned by the McClatchy Company and headquartered in Doral, Florida, a city in western Miami-Dade County and the Miami metropolitan area, several miles west of Downtown Miami.St. Petersburg Times'' in 1969. She was elected national president of Theta Sigma Phi, now

Association for Women in Communications The Association for Women in Communications (AWC) is an American professional organization for women in the communications industry. History Theta Sigma Phi The Association for Women in Communications began in 1909 as Theta Sigma Phi (), an ho ...

, in 1963. She went on to become the fourth female publisher in the Gannett newspaper chain. After 1970, however, gender segregation faded and the term "woman's page" fell out of fashion. Women in journalism then moved from covering teas and bridal veils to abortion, abuse and feminism. In Britain, society news was at the same time emerging in the British press as part of "women's journalism", again aimed at attracting a female readership. It was also, in both the U.S. and Britain, largely the province of women journalists, and considered subordinate. For example: Society news, in the late 19th century, was not sent to the newspapers by reporters via the

telegraph Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas ...

, as other news was, because that was considered too expensive for mere society reporting. Society journalists instead sent their reports by ordinary mail. Dix Harwood, author of the 1927 journalism textbook ''Getting and Writing News'', stated that society reporting rarely enjoyed much dignity. Despite the growth in popularity in the 1880s, many "serious" newspapers were initially cautious about society reporting. For example, the ''

Ottawa Journal The ''Ottawa Journal'' was a daily broadsheet newspaper published in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, from 1885 to 1980. It was founded in 1885 by A. Woodburn as the ''Ottawa Evening Journal''. Its first editor was John Wesley Dafoe who came from the ...

'' didn't permit Florence Randal, its first society reporter, to do anything but recite simple chronicles of the

dowager A dowager is a widow or widower who holds a title or property—a " dower"—derived from her or his deceased spouse. As an adjective, ''dowager'' usually appears in association with monarchical and aristocratic titles. In popular usage, the noun ...

s and

debutante A debutante, also spelled débutante, ( ; from french: débutante , "female beginner") or deb is a young woman of aristocratic or upper-class family background who has reached maturity and, as a new adult, is presented to society at a formal ...

s of the city. The staff at the ''Globe'', whose society column began in 1893, considered society news to be "horrid vulgar stuff", according to the ''Globe'''s editor Melville Hammond, and its publication was not well received by its subjects: "high Society matrons

ho were Ho (or the transliterations He or Heo) may refer to: People Language and ethnicity * Ho people, an ethnic group of India ** Ho language, a tribal language in India * Hani people, or Ho people, an ethnic group in China, Laos and Vietnam * Hiri Mo ...

unused to the publicizing of private life". Willoughby Cummings ( Emily Ann McCausland), worked as a press journalist and the first society editor of the ''

Toronto Globe ''The Globe'' was a newspaper in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, founded in 1844 by George Brown as a Reform voice. It merged with '' The Mail and Empire'' in 1936 to form ''The Globe and Mail''. History ''The Globe'' is pre-dated by a title of the sa ...

'' under the pen name of "Sama". Under her stewardship, the ''Toronto Globe'' expanded its society coverage from weekly notes to a daily column in three years. In 1900, she became editor of "Woman's Sphere", a department of the ''

Canadian Magazine The ''Canadian Magazine of Politics, Science, Art and Literature'' was the premiere monthly literary journal of Anglophone Canada for three decades. History and profile Edited first by James Gordon Mowat then by John Alexander Cooper, the first is ...

''. She worked on behalf of the poor and afflicted and served as an official of various societies. In 1902, for example, she became the corresponding secretary for the

National Council of Women of Canada The National Council of Women of Canada (NCWC, french: Conseil national des femmes du Canada, (''CNFC'')) is a Canadian advocacy organization based in Ottawa, Ontario, aimed at improving conditions for women, families, and communities. A federati ...

. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, society reporting was seen as largely the province of female journalists. The "women's pages" were written by women. Indeed, in the 19th century in many newspapers, particularly smaller ones, the only women on the paper's staff at all were those who covered society news. Dix Harwood claimed that the society desk, and the woman who ran it, was nonetheless important: Typical topics were "Miss

Emily Bissell Emily Perkins Bissell (May 31, 1861 – March 8, 1948) was an American social worker and activist, best remembered for introducing Christmas Seals to the United States. Born in Wilmington, Delaware, she made a name for herself at a young age as t ...

as a Turkish Girl", ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...

'', Jan 1, 1900 or "Maryland Society Belle Was Fair Senorita at Ball", ''

Times-Picayune ''The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate'' is an American newspaper published in New Orleans, Louisiana, since January 25, 1837. The current publication is the result of the 2019 acquisition of ''The Times-Picayune'' (itself a result of th ...

'', Feb 7, 1916. Male reporters were unwilling to cover such things. As Morton Sontheimer stated in 1941, "The women's department jobs almost invariably go to women, not because men can't do them but because they won't." (''Newspaperman'', pp. 228). One such reporter who refused to do the job even though it had been handed to him was

Gordon Sinclair Allan Gordon Sinclair, OC, FRGS (June 3, 1900 – May 17, 1984) was a Canadian journalist, writer and commentator. Early life Sinclair was born in the Cabbagetown neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario, the son of George Alexander and Bessie Gol ...

, of the ''

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and par ...

''. Sinclair got the job of woman's page editor after Clifford Wallace, its previous editor, had begged to be relieved of the job. Wallace, the first male woman's page editor of the ''Star'' and nicknamed "Nellie" because of that, had been given the job as the result of the proprietor's wife, Mrs Atkinson, regarding the women who had previously run the women's desk as "a menace". In 1922, the managing editor reassigned the position from Wallace to Sinclair. Sinclair treated the position with utter contempt. He later wrote:

History

See also

References

Further reading