About

William Thomas Christopher ceased publication of his Commercial Reporter and published the first issue of the Sunday Phonograph in August 1878 in Atlanta, Georgia. Christopher’s salutatory editorial positioned his paper as an organ of the Greenback Movement that supported the circulation of unbacked currency in the United States. Despite its political affiliation, the publication featured a variety of items from political news to literary works. The weekly newspaper circulated every Sunday at a subscription cost of two dollars. In 1879, W. T. Christopher expanded the paper’s staff by hiring his brother, S. H. Christopher, and former editor of the Gainesville Eagle, H. W. J. Ham. In January 1881, Christopher attempted to expand into Atlanta’s competitive daily newspaper market, but he suspended publication of the Daily Phonograph just four months later. In May 1883, the Christopher brothers announced the suspension of the Sunday Phonograph altogether; according to the Columbus Daily Enquirer-Sun of May 29, 1883, ‘[the] proprietors will devote themselves entirely to job work hereafter.’ W. T. Christopher originally arrived in Atlanta to set up a print shop, and the Sunday Phonograph was meant more to advertise his job printing business than it was to compete in Atlanta’s crowded field of journalism.