Through most of its existence the Bulletin was a four-page eight-column paper, about half advertising. The space totaled, in the July 16 (1872) issue, 758 column inches of which 379 was given to advertising. Of the non-advertising space, telegraphic news occupied 65 inches; editorial, 69 inches; science, 7 inches; literature, 8 inches; travel stories, 38 inches; crime, 22 inches; sports, 4 inches; commerce, 48 inches; local news items, 18 inches; agriculture, 17 inches.
The shortage of local news is typical of all the pioneer papers as compared with those of today. The three reasons for this may be (1) the relative scarcity of important happenings as compared with today; (2) the fact that the demand was still much heavier for the news from "outside" than for the home news; (3) the earlier reporters had not yet built up the technique of effective reporting.
One of the historic stories in the Bulletin as reflecting the opening of one phase of Portland's development was an article in the issue of Monday, December 9, 1872, describing Portland's first street-cars.
The Bulletin at first came out as a morning, evening, and weekly paper. During that time it commented that no other newspaper on the Pacific Coast covered the whole time field in that way. On one occasion, December 9, 1872, the Bulletin announced, in addition to changes in form and management, a move from the evening to the morning field, explaining that "an evening journal cannot hope to be much more than a merely local paper." This was before the "today's news today" era.
Under the editorship of James O'Meara in 1872, the Bulletin conducted a campaign against the police department, which it accused of inefficiency in suppressing and solving crime in the city. This strained relations between the paper and the police; and one day, with the connivance of other reporters, police headquarters "planted" a fake story of the discovery of the murdered and mutilated body of a missing man. The Bulletin's reporter swallowed the story whole, including the detail of the body's being brought up by the anchor of a ship putting out for sea; the skull fractured, throat cut, and 18 bullet-wounds in the body.
The indignation of the Bulletin when the hoax was exposed was equalled only by the amusement of the other newspapers, openly expressed by the Herald.
The death of the Bulletin was followed by the rise of a new paper, the Bee, first number of which, a diminutive tabloid (3-column, 4-page) appeared November 2, 1875. Like the Bulletin, the Bee started with two editions daily, and for a time circulated 1,000 copies free. D. H. Stearns was editor. The paper was published at 5 Washington street, office of Himes the Printer, and when the paper finally died George H. Himes was one of those who had lost some money — for unpaid printing bills.
The flea-sized Bee started off with high hopes. It seemed to have,
