In the 1840s American poet Walt Whitman was a newspaper editor in Brooklyn, running the Daily Eagle. Before Paul Lazarsfeld came up with the focus group, here’s how one of Whitman’s editorials described the relationship between journalist and reader:

“We really feel a desire to talk on many subjects to all the people of Brooklyn; and it ain’t their ninepences we want so much either. There is a curious kind of sympathy (haven’t you ever thought of it before?) that arises in the mind of a newspaper conductor with the public he serves . . . Daily communion creates a sort of brotherhood and sisterhood between the two parties.”

I like the idea of newspaper conductors…