From 1880 to 1887 native of nearby Cochran's Mills, Nellie Bly worked for the Dispatch writing investigative articles on female factory workers, and later reported from Mexico as a foreign correspondent.

[2] Foster was a strong opponent of slavery in the United States and, having determined that the local market thought similarly, lent an abolitionist tone to the paper.

His daughter Rachel Foster Avery became a prominent worker in the National American Woman Suffrage Association.

Initially Foster acted not only as business manager and financier of the paper, but wrote extensively in it as well, even producing the copy on a hand press.

The paper had become successful due to its independent approach to the news and its in-depth court reporting: In 1857, the Dispatch was Pittsburgh's leading newspaper with a combined daily and weekly circulation of 14,000, compared with the number two Chronicle's 5,584.

The paper's warmth toward Know-Nothingism in the mid-1850s reflected Foster's belief that the movement was a better reform vehicle than the competing parties, which he saw as corrupt and beholden to the rising foreign-born vote.

Foster rationalized the movement's nativism and anti-Catholicism, arguing that "the foreign Catholic vote is almost unanimously cast for slavery" and that immigrants made up much of the "rum party" opposed to temperance reforms.

The paper was still four sheets, but management bought new rotary presses and they significantly enlarged its coverage, eventually doubling its size making it one of the largest and most prosperous newspapers in the United States.

The smaller size and greater bulk made the Dispatch stand out from the competition most of whom were using the older blanket press in a broad sheet format.

O'Neill reinvested the savings realized from his advanced presses and engaged correspondents in Washington and the other news centers around the country.

[11] Ownership of the paper was reorganized in corporate form under the title "The Dispatch Publishing Company" in 1888 with E.M. O'Neill as President, Bakewell Phillips, Treasurer, and C.A.

Matters came to a head in 1920 when a number of newspapers nationwide simply couldn't source newsprint at all and had to publish extremely truncated editions.

[18] The combination of rapidly rising costs and higher spending on new press technology led to a trend toward industry consolidation in the 1910s and 1920s.