One statement in this was exaggerated -- most accounts of the Budapest Telefon Hirmondó report that the number of subscribers was actually a few thousand, not "160,000". Also, the full name of the company was the "Telephone Newspaper Company of America".
Logansport (Indiana) Daily Reporter, October 14, 1909, page 3.
WORLD TO GET NEWS BY PHONE
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STRONG RIVAL OF THE NEWSPAPER IS PLANNED.
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INNOVATION IS GREAT
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In a Short Time People Can Roll Over in Bed, Take Receiver Off Hook and Hear the News of the Day.
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New York, October 14.--The Telephone Company of America organized by electing Manley M. Gillam of 110 W. Thirty-fourth street, president, and William H. Alexander, of 10-12 Old Slip, secretary and treasurer, and pretty soon we'll be able to flop over in bed mornings, turn on a telephone like arrangement and listen to a summary of news from all over the world.
"Why, it'll be just as simple as turning on the gas or electric light." Mr. Gillam explained today.
"Zing! You switch on the current and place the receiver to your ear." A melodious voice will exclaim: "Good morning! Weather bureau predicts fair weather, Jeffries licked Johnson last night, Peary says Cook is a--well, that he didn't reach the pole. Miss Dottie Pink Tights has recovered her diamonds. Pittsburg millionaire shoots up a lobster palace. President Taft played golf yesterday. John D. endowed another university and the price of oil has advanced two cents."
To one who has been to Budapest the "telephone newspaper" is no novelty. Over there a complete plant is working. It furnishes canned news to 160,000 subscribers daily. It has other features, too.
The American company is in the embryonic stage. But within three months Mr. Gillam predicts it will be furnishing news, vocal and instrumental music to many subscribers. The experiment, he says, will be tried in a town smaller than New York. The service will be an individual one, not connected with the ordinary telephone of commerce. The company hasn't decided on rates. In Budapest subscribers pay sixty cents a month and a quarter a month for every additional extension. Cornelius Balassa, whose office is at 10-12 W. Twenty-second street, is said to own all American rights to the machinery appliances and the patent that will be utilized.