Ever heard of the Dispatch march? There were actually two

Yes, newspapers were once the source of news, highly relevant and wildly popular. Long before radio and television, newsboys would deliver door-to-door, customers would wait on porches and people would clip and mail articles to each other. Maybe while listening to a phonograph recording.

It was quaint and noble and ubiquitous.

And then there's today: cable networks, Netflix, YouTube, Hulu and Google, the latter of which has been draining digital ad revenue from news sources. The cell phone provides round-the-clock news, most of it free.

But during this bygone era, actually little more than a century ago, part of which featured Yellow Journalism – an effort to boost news sales using sensational headlines, melodrama and sketchy details over facts and accuracy (sound familiar) − there was also a counter force: music.

Music, specifically marches, celebrated the solemnity of a news outlet's civic pride and democratic ideals in regimented, patriotic verse.

"I think they really were a manifestation of an essential part of what newspapers played to American culture and democracy. They filled in spaces that were blank," said George C. Foreman, a musicologist and longtime researcher of both newspapers and marches.

"Many papers printed a piano piece every week. Some published poetry on the front page," Foreman said. "They were filling in sort of not having access to high-quality literature and sort of stoked a person's ego to have their work published."

Foreman compiled a database of more than 500 newspapers that also had theme-song marches. He has found march names and in some cases, sheet music for each. The Columbus Dispatch is included, just not the music.

The man behind the marches

The most famous link between a march and newspaper began around 1888, when John Philip Sousa was asked to write a song to commemorate a children's essay contest, according to John Bierley, whose father, Paul, was the authoritative scholar on Sousa, who composed more than 130 military marches and earned the name "The March King."

The contest awards ceremony was held June 15, 1889. President Benjamin Harrison and other dignitaries were among the huge crowd. "When the new march was played by Sousa and the Marine Band, it was enthusiastically received, and within days it became exceptionally popular in Washington," according to Paul Bierley's "The Works of John Philip Sousa."

The march was a hit at about the same time the two-step dance craze was sweeping the country, John Bierley said.

The tempo and feel of Sousa's march was perfect for this dance, said Bierley, a cornet player and founder of Westerville Community Bands.

"That made him literally famous around the world. It's just one of those flukes that it became popular because of the two-step that was popular at the time," he said.

As for the 10,000 community bands around 1900, Bierley said that Sousa's march caught on.

"I think everybody loves to have their names on something. I think newspapers felt 'If we can have The March King write a march for us, it will be with us forever,'" he said, describing marches – typically about two and a half minutes long – as "exciting, fast-paced," used to open new buildings or companies, "used to cut the ribbon."

So what about The Dispatch's march?

According to Dispatch archives, "The Dispatch" was the name of one of two known marches composed for the paper and its precursors, The Columbus Evening Dispatch or The Columbus Daily Dispatch. The other march was simply called "Dispatch." Both were written by Fred Neddermeyer, a highly regarded local composer and musician, who is buried in Green Lawn Cemetery.

And despite efforts to locate his compositions, Neddermeyer's tributes to local journalism may also be gone, even though references to them can be found.

None of Neddermeyer's marches were available after searches at Stanton's Sheet Music in Downtown, the Ohio History Connection or the Library of Congress.

What is known is that both Dispatch marches were performed by the Columbus Dispatch Newsboys' Band at various concerts at the time.

A July 12, 1908, Dispatch story announced an upcoming concert, listing the entire 10-song program. The second song, a march entitled "Newsy," was written and conducted by Neddermeyer. The story noted that "every boy in the band was a newsboy (newsy) ... and, of course, a Dispatch newsboy."

The story described an early rehearsal of "Onward, Christian Soldiers" for the 40-member Newsboy band during which a fire broke out near the Dispatch building and attention was divided, discord ensued from sheet music to rising smoke.

Neddermeyer, according to the news story, told his ensemble to "'beat it' to the fire and come back when the fidgets were over."

Another Newsboy performance at Ohio State University included "The Dispatch" march and another penned by Neddermeyer called "Greater Columbus."

Another story hailed the Dispatch in creating and funding the band, using early slang that is still used today.

"What the Columbus Dispatch does, it does well," the story read, describing first-class instruments, music and uniforms, and Neddermeyer as music director is "nuf ced," according to the 1908 story.

Intrepid New Jersey reporter creates his own march

One of the reasons The Dispatch is covering such an esoteric topic is Jim Beckerman , a veteran reporter at The Bergen Record, part of the USA TODAY Network.

"I think that it's not a bad thing to remind people that newspapers, however imperfect they are, were once celebrated and one of the pillars of democracy," he told The Dispatch recently.

He became so enthralled by the concept of theme marches for newspapers that he went on to compose his own.

Beckerman learned that at least 500 newspapers had their brass-heavy, steady-tempoed tributes to celebrate patriotic ideals and common purpose. And his did not.

Beckerman was dismayed but undaunted, leading him to compose a march that would depict newspapers, not as a dirge to what some consider a dying industry, but as a triumphant salute to the past and future.

"My thought was if I wrote this, that maybe they [corporate] would orchestrate it. And they did," Beckerman said of his USA TODAY bosses.

The New Jersey Wind Symphony performed Beckerman's march in May , and will do so again to celebrate the country's 250th birthday.

'Extra, Extra! Get yer Extra here!'

Back when newsboys would stand on street corners to announce breaking news and special print editions, newspaper "penetration" was greater than 100% of households.

Even in the 1950s and '60s, it was common for households to purchase and read multiple newspapers and then share copies with others.

Today, readership and analytics are mostly from digital, online reading, with fewer bagged papers seen in front of homes each morning.

Foreman, the musicologist, has done extensive research on both newspapers and marches. He estimates he has full arrangements for more than 125 of them and about 400 piano scores for others. Just not Dispatch marches.

"1890 to about 1910 was the golden age of American bands, when every town had a band (10-20 members) and every home had a piano," Foreman,  director emeritus of the University of Georgia Performing Arts Center , told The Dispatch.

"They were sort of the two forms of cultural entertainment."

Civic pride and a bit of self-promotion led newspaper owners to use marches to connect with their readers and community.

"It was connected to democracy, the idea that elections should be one of the biggest jewels in the crown of democracy," Foreman said.

As life and society grow more complex, that ideal may be losing some luster, he and others fear.

You can learn more about newspaper marches here .

Former Dispatch research librarian, Linda Deitch, contributed to this story.

Growth and development reporter Dean Narciso can be reached at dnarciso@dispatch.com.

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ever heard of the Dispatch march? There were actually two