The New York Sun first appeared on September 3, 1833: all text and in smaller format than the broadsheets, to save on costs. Day did it all—he was "proprietor, publisher, editor, chief pressman, and mailing clerk." For the paper's first issue, he took the unusual step of filling it with advertisements from businesses he had never solicited. You might say that he ran advertisements, in effect, to try and find advertisers. Such could also be understood from his statement on the front page: "The object of this paper," he wrote, "is to lay before the public, at a price within the means of every one, ALL THE NEWS OF THE DAY, and at the same time afford an advantageous medium for advertising." His plan for delivering on the promise of such a broad readership was to feature stories from which no one could look away.

Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, loc. 30