Barnum, Jenny Lind, and the Press, New York Herald, October 7, 1850

This brief item attempts to refute rumors that Barnum paid for the many articles and items published about Jenny Lind in the New York newspapers. The charge that the Herald, never a friend to Barnum, might be the recipient of payments from him was probably quite amusing to the master publicist.

Barnum, Jenny Lind, and the Press

We perceive in several exchange papers, attacks upon the New York press in reference to the Jenny Lind excitement; and the Herald, as usual, comes in for the principal share of abuse. It is more than insinuated that "black mail" has been levied, and that the articles about the Swedish Nightingale have been paid for. This must certainly be all very rich to Barnum, who, behind the scenes, enjoys the joke, and pockets his $5,000 net each concert, $15,000 per week, $780,000, or more than three quarters of a million, per annum, while the papers receive nothing but vituperation for their services, except, indeed, a few free tickets given grudgingly, and very often to the worst part of the house.