American News Company stock certificate 1970

Fantastic vignette of a paperboy flanked by two classical figures.  Issued and not cancelled, dated 1970.

American News Company was a magazine, newspaper, book, and comic book distribution company founded in 1864 by Sinclair Tousey, which dominated the distribution market in the last quarter of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. The company's abrupt 1957 demise caused a huge shakeup in the publishing industry, forcing many magazine, comic book, and paperback publishers out of business.

American News was the country's major news stand distributor headquartered in New York with over 400 regional distribution centers. Created to handle the distribution of major urban dailies, it also carried the major weekly and monthly periodicals. More important, it carried all of them on an exclusive basis.

No publisher could expect to appear on a stand supplied by American News if that publisher sent his material anywhere else. American News possessed a wholly owned subsidiary, the Union News Company, that had made over 900 contracts with railroad terminals, large hotels, and other prime news stand locations with exclusivity. Until it was broken by the courts as a "combination in restraint of trade", it was one of last surviving trusts of the early 20th century.

In 1952 the government began antitrust litigation against ANC which was destined to drag on until the company's demise. Around 1955 major magazine publishers began disengaging themselves from ANC and making other arrangements for newsstand distribution. When Collier's and Woman's Home Companion, two of their biggest-selling titles, folded in January 1957, it came as a serious blow to ANC at a time when the company was already on financially shaky ground. In April Dell Publishing announced that they were pulling out and making other arrangements for their distribution.

The American News Company was found guilty of restraint of trade in 1957 and it was forced to divest itself of its newsstands. The effect on the US magazine market was catastrophic. Many magazines had to switch to one of the independent distributors, who were able to set their own conditions for taking on new business. This often forced the magazines to change from a digest size to a larger format, and to become monthly rather than bimonthly or quarterly. Many magazines could not afford to make these changes, both of which required either high circulation or a strong advertising base, and many magazines folded as a result.

The effect on the American magazine market was catastrophic. Many magazines had to switch to one of the independent distributors, who were able to set their own conditions for taking on new business. This often forced the magazines to change from a digest size to a larger format, and to become monthly rather than bimonthly or quarterly. Many magazines could not afford to make these changes, both of which required either high circulation or a strong advertising base, and many magazines folded as a result. An example of a company that the change in distributor had a drastic impact on is Atlas Comics, which was forced to switch distribution to Independent News, owned by National Periodical Publications, owner of Atlas' rival, DC Comics. Because of this, Atlas was constrained as to its publishing output for the next decade (including the early years of its successor, Marvel Comics).

Company became Ancorp National Services in 1970.