The New York Herald, the Sun, and the Tribune had been founded only recently and they represented a new type of journalism, swift, fearless, and energetic.

The proprietors of these newspapers saw that this new instrument was bound to affect all newspaperdom profoundly.

How was the newspaper to cope with the situation and make use of the news that was coming in and would be coming in more and more over the wires?
For one thing, the newspapers needed better printing machinery.

The application of steam, or any mechanical power, to printing in America was only begun.

It had been introduced by Robert Hoe in the very years when Morse was struggling to perfect the telegraph.