The Woman's Journal, 1870-1931

Lucy Stone and her husband, Henry Browne Blackwell, founded the Woman's Journal, a weekly newspaper, in 1870. Mary A. Livermore was among the editors in the first year. From 1872 until 1893, when LS died, LS and HBB edited the WJ ; they were aided by Julia Ward Howe between 1872 and 1879. LS and HBB's daughter, Alice Stone Blackwell, started work as an editor in 1883 and, after her father's death in 1909, became the sole editor until 1917. In 1887, ASB began editing the Woman's Column .

In addition to sales and subscriptions, the WJ relied on contributions to produce a newspaper national in both scope and readership. Although there was never enough advertising to secure its financial well-being, the WJ would not accept ads for tobacco, liquor, or medicines. Between 1908 and 1915 circulation jumped from 2,400 to 27,600. In the early 1910s, suffragists, licensed as "newsboys," sold the newspaper on the Boston Common. The WJ hired Margaret Foley, a popular suffrage speaker, to travel throughout the south and midwest promoting the journal.

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