Dietrick Lamade
Williamsport, Lycoming County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
German-born publisher of the Sunday Grit, for many years a national "family newspaper." He founded it in 1882; this site was its home after 1889. He built Grit on a "good news" concept, an appeal to rural tastes, and a nationwide network of young carriers.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
German-born publisher Dietrick Lamade founded the Sunday Grit in Williamsport in 1882, building it from this site after 1889 into one of the country's best-known "family newspapers." He grew Grit on a deliberate formula: upbeat "good news," content tuned to rural readers, and a nationwide army of young paperboys who sold it door to door. For generations of small-town and farm households, Grit was a weekly window on the wider world.
Why it matters
Grit shaped rural American reading habits for a century and launched countless children into their first jobs, a distinctive chapter in the nation's publishing and immigrant-entrepreneur history.
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Related people
- ¡ Dietrick Lamade
Themes & tags
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