Background
Robert Bonner was born on April 28, 1824, in Ramelton, Ireland. He came to America in 1839.
Robert Bonner was born on April 28, 1824, in Ramelton, Ireland. He came to America in 1839.
Bonner learned the printer's trade on the Hartford Courant in Connecticut.
Robert Bonner became a remarkably fast compositor and early showed a fondness for fast horses. While still a typesetter for the Courant, he was constantly swapping horses to get one that had more speed. Believing that New York City offered greater opportunities for a practical printer than Hartford, he went in 1844 to the metropolis where in 1851 he purchased from the profits of his printing plant the Merchant's Ledger, a commercial sheet published in the interest of the dry-goods trade. Promptly shortening the name, he excluded all news of that business and turned the paper into a family newspaper by substituting popular fiction for quotations on stock for merchants. To secure circulation he became a lavish purchaser of advertising space in newspapers though he refused all advertisements submitted for publication in the Ledger. He originated freak advertising and what is known to-day as "teaser copy. " For example, he would purchase a whole newspaper page and then put in each column, "Read The New York Ledger, " repeated over and over again until the jumble filled all the space.
When in 1860 his press room was "gutted" by fire he distributed the printing of his Ledger among a dozen other plants and advertised in the leading daily papers throughout the country, "Unless we are burned out more than once a week, The New York Ledger will be ready Monday mornings on all newsstands of the United States, the Sandwich Islands and New Jersey. " Even in his personal advertising he was also spectacular. He once offered for sale his summer home from which he wanted to get away as fast as one of his famous horses could carry him because all his family and servants had the ague and fever. Cash was demanded because "any security would get the fever and ague and become shaky. "
Bonner advertised his stable by getting occupants of the White House to ride behind his horses. To the public he sold the Ledger as cheaply as possible, three dollars a year, but to authors - he had a mania for "big names" - he paid startling sums. To Mrs. James Parton, who, writing under the nom de plume of "Fanny Fern, " was one of the "best sellers" of the day, he paid $100 a column and to Edward Everett, for a series of short articles, he gave $10, 000. Obtaining contributions from Raymond of the New York Times, Greeley of the New York Tribune, and Bennett of the New York Herald, he put all three articles in one issue of the Ledger. Always he was seeking some new thing or an old thing that could be done in a new way. Even in producing his periodical he sought profits in a novel way for the time - from circulation alone. He achieved his ambition and saw the weekly sales reach nearly the half-million mark. The profits from the Ledger went in part to establish racing records. For fast horses, which he never allowed to run again for money prizes, Bonner spent more than $500, 000.
Robert Bonner was a member of the Presbyterian Church.
Robert Bonner married Jane McConlis in 1850 and they had six children
