The New York Tribune or “The Tribune” was founded by Horace Greeley on April 10, 1841. Greeley had no money when he founded it, except a loan of $1,000 to start off. He became a prominent leader in the newspaper industry and the editor of the paper for 30 years. The Tribune grew to influence in the US and the circulation evolved from small town business to a record of a weekly  200,000 paper circulation by 1860. At its peak of prominence, editors such as Margaret Fuller and Karl Marx worked under Greeley.

The Tribune was a penny paper in the sense that it was inexpensive and easily accessible for all social classes. Penny papers such as the New York Sun which is also mentioned in the diary, emphasized and brought humor to crimes and police work. In comparison, as a Library of Congress description tells us, “the Tribune offered a strong moralistic flavor, however, playing down crime reports and scandals, providing political news, special articles, lectures, book reviews, book excerpts and poetry.” Greeley purposely formed The Tribune into a more politically-minded paper. Rivals of the paper were The Sun and The Herald.

Greeley said of his paper, “The Tribune, as its name imports, will labor to advance the interests of the people, to promote their moral, social and political well-being.”

Eventually, the Tribune merged with New York Herald, forming New York Herald Tribune in 1924.

Hopper used advertisements in the Tribune primarily when searching for employment for discharged convicts. 

Sources:

Library of Congress Editors, ed. "About New-York tribune. (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924." Library of Congress. Accessed March 31, 2019. https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030214/.

The New York tribune, where and how it is made: facts for advertisers and readers. Philadelphia, PA, n.d. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/nnc1.cu57712441.

The story of Horace Greeley and the New York Tribune. New York, NY: New York Tribune, 1916. https://hdl.handle.net/2027/nnc1.cu57699488.