When cutting-edge technology for newspapers meant a pair of sharp scissors

During the early 1800s, cutting-edge technology for newspapers meant a pair of sharp scissors.

The most significant source of news for the Register came from other newspapers with which the Register exchanged subscriptions. The most important sources, often just called the exchanges, included mostly

American Antiquarian Society

Eastern newspapers that arrived by the latest mail.

The Register, like most other newspapers, depended on its exchanges for important information from the economic and political centers of New York, Boston and Washington and the major cities of Europe.

Often derided as “scissors and pastepot journalism,” this highly organized system of gathering news had its own set of rules and understandings among editors. One of those understandings was that editors were to give credit to the source newspapers.

When the editor of The St. Stephens Halcyon violated that rule, the Register chided that “To the Halcyon, our debt of gratitude is easily paid—the only notice it has condescended to take of us, is to copy about a column and a half from us without giving the usual credit.”

The Register complained that it took two days’ labor to collect the information from about 300 pages and arrange the matter for publication.