Facebook for the 19th century
Barak Obama claims that he is raising a $1m a day, mostly online and mostly in the form of relatively small donations from private individuals. This sort of political “micro-philanthropy” is a thoroughly modern affair (see Peter Deitz’ amazing slideshow on the phenomenon–one interesting point: in Apr ‘07 distributed fundraising sites more than $3m; see also ChipIn for a widget version). Or, at least, that is what I had always thought. Then this morning, I heard a piece on the Statue of Liberty on Radio 4 that revealed the true father of “micro-philanthropy” - Joseph Pulitzer.
In post Civil War America (postbellum?), newspapers were a genuinely powerful force. The invention of more efficient and cheaper printing presses and an increasingly urban demographic allowed newspapers to become a populist medium for the first time. As a result, papers had enormous influence on the issues of the day. One of the world’s great campaigning newspapers, Joseph Pulitzer’s The World (see page on left) is from this era and is at least partially responsible for bringing the France’s greatest gift (besides all that help with the pesky red coats), the Statue of Liberty, to New York. (There is also one in Tokyo - see photo above courtesy of Stefan on flickr and also one in Paris)
France generously offered the huge, 151 ft statue as a gift, leaving the United States to pay only for the plinth on which it would stand. Alas, most of the fat cats in the country thought of the statue as a New York momument that had nothing to do with the rest of the country and refused to stump for the plinth. But, then Pulitzer got on the case, haranguing both the rich for not caring about their country and poor for expecting the rich to do all the work. The result? Money literally poured in, a great deal of it from school children sending in pennys to see their name in print and to give to what was suddenly seen as a worthy cause. Today, of course, this sort of social movement would start and end on Facebook of Bebo.
This is a crucial lesson for today’s far less powerful newspapers. They need to go retro and engage, even uncover, issues people really care about. They need to become rallying points again.
Add comment February 14th, 2008