There is many different dates of when the newsboys went on strike. The most famous out of them is the one that started in July of 1899. They went on strike from the newspaper company of Joseph Pulitzer who was the publisher of The New York World and competitor William Randolph Hearst who was the publisher of The New York Journal. Pulitzer and Hearst both decided together they needed more money so they raised the cost of newspaper bundles of 100 newspapers from 50¢ to 60¢. When prices went up, the strike started. Most boys were orphans or runaways and could barely afford the paper at 50¢ a bundle so 60¢ was unacceptable, they need to the money to buy more papers and things to survive by. The boys refused to distribute the papers. They told the
