The International News Company

Bridging Cultures Through English Editions of German Movable Books

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The Crib: A Picture Book for Standing Up, issued circa 1893 in New York, adapts Schreiber’s Christmas nativity flipbook Die Krippe

In the late 19th century, the American book industry underwent a dramatic shift as transatlantic networks of print began to converge with national infrastructure, commercial consolidation, and immigrant-driven demand. Central to this transformation was the rise of international book distribution, a process that enabled American readers to access European publications and allowed foreign publishers to tap into an expanding U.S. market.

At the heart of this network stood the American News Company (ANC) and its affiliated branches, most notably the International News Company, which acted as the overseas import-export arm. While best known for their role in dominating magazine and newspaper distribution, these firms also played a pivotal but underappreciated role in the circulation of books, including European literature, children's picture books, and movable publications.

The appetite for beautifully illustrated and mechanically inventive children’s books was also on the rise—not only across Europe but also in the United States. One little-known yet influential player in bringing these works to English-speaking audiences was The International News Company, a division of the formidable American News Company (ANC).

Operating from its main office at 83 and 85 Duane Street in New York, with additional branches in London and Leipzig, the International News Company functioned as the overseas arm of ANC, specializing in the import, distribution, and reprinting of European periodicals and illustrated books, including the sought-after genre of movable books.

The American News Company, founded in 1864, rapidly became the dominant news distributor in the United States, overseeing thousands of titles and a nationwide network of newsstands and subscription services. The International News Company—sometimes listed in trade directories and catalogs simply as “International News Co.”—was created to manage the import and export of foreign publications, both in serialized and book form.

The American News Company quickly became a vertically integrated powerhouse. As Charles Johanningsmeier, author of Fiction and the American Literary Marketplace: The Role of Newspaper Syndicates in America, 1860–1900 documents, ANC created a centralized and monopolistic system that supplied booksellers, newsstands, and agents across the country through exclusive contracts and an extensive transportation network. By the 1880s, ANC had secured distribution dominance not only through physical reach but also by dictating terms to both domestic and international publishers.

As part of this system, ANC acquired or absorbed competing firms and linked them into a centralized distribution chain. The International News Company, formed in the late 1870s, emerged as the specialized branch for managing the importation of foreign-language and foreign-printed materials. It soon became the primary U.S. distributor of illustrated books and periodicals from Germany, France, and the United Kingdom.

At its height, the American News Company’s control over print circulation was so complete that it could make or break a title’s market success. Its affiliates—including INCo—were able to select which foreign titles would enter the American market, reshape their format, and control their advertising reach. As Johanningsmeier explains, this system blurred the line between logistics and cultural production: the companies that moved books also decided which ones deserved to be moved.

Because of their ties to immigrant communities and ethnic bookstores, firms like INCo were uniquely positioned to bridge the gap between European publishers and American consumers. They offered German-language novels, poetry, fairy tales, and illustrated albums—many of which retained their original European formatting. But they also sold English-language editions of European works, sometimes created via translation or rewrapping imported stock under American branding.

The infrastructure that supported this activity was formidable. Books arrived via steamship to New York Harbor, were processed at ANC's facilities (such as the Duane Street or Varick Street warehouses), and then distributed by rail through ANC's affiliated Union News Company and other agents nationwide. In this way, even foreign books could reach remote areas of the country within days.

Foreign publishers—including those producing movable children's books and German literary works—were compelled to comply with ANC’s terms if they wanted access to American distribution networks. Books that didn’t fit ANC’s commercial model were unlikely to be imported at all, giving the company effective veto power over the transatlantic flow of printed culture.

Even titles that made it across were often repackaged or partially Anglicized to meet commercial expectations. From altering cover designs and formats to suppressing foreign language elements, ANC and INCo shaped what American readers perceived as “foreign” literature. The company did not just distribute books—it curated, filtered, and reformatted them to align with domestic tastes and commercial interests.

This kind of influence blurred the boundary between logistics and publishing. The International News Company often appeared as the listed publisher on title pages, even though they had not printed or edited the book. Their power came from access and infrastructure—not content creation—making them one of the most important but invisible cultural gatekeepers of the period. By controlling distribution, ANC and its affiliates could effectively determine market visibility, favoring those publishers who complied with their terms. This included foreign publishers, who had little recourse but to partner with firms like INCo to gain access to the lucrative American market.

This control extended beyond content to format. For example, book length, type size, cover design, and price point were all subject to modification based on market expectations. In this way, the international book trade in America during this period was not a neutral conduit but a curated and commercialized channel managed by a few dominant players.

Among its most significant cultural contributions was the introduction of German movable picture books to American and British markets. These books, known for their intricate paper engineering and vibrant chromolithographs, were typically produced by renowned German publishers such as J.F. Schreiber, Meggendorfer, and Verlag von H. F. Müller, but were often reissued in English by intermediaries like the International News Company.

Besides importing foreign-language editions, the company frequently commissioned or arranged for English-language adaptations, often using identical mechanical elements and illustrations. These editions would retain the charm and visual sophistication of the original German works while adapting the text—and occasionally the cover design—for English-speaking readers. A known example is The Crib: A Picture Book for Standing Up, an English version of a German Christmas nativity book.

The earliest known listing of the International News Company appears in an 1879 publication, which records the firm operating from 31 Beekman Street in New York and notes that it was formerly the Willmer & Rogers News Company. This transition aligns with the timeline of Adalbert Peppmüller’s appointment, shortly after the absorption of Willmer & Rodgers by the American News Company. Even at this early stage, the company served as the authorized U.S. and Canadian agent for a wide range of British serials.

Adalbert Peppmüller, a German-born merchant with professional experience in Vienna, Paris, and London, became superintendent of the German and French department of the International News Company following its founding. Peppmüller had joined the American News Company in 1871 and helped build its foreign division to "almost gigantic proportions," securing exclusive distribution rights for prominent German publishing houses such as Hallberger and Bibliographisches Institut. These same firms were central to the production of movable and illustrated books, suggesting Peppmüller's direct influence on their entry into the English-speaking market.

A 1926 trade listing confirms that the International News Company was actively importing and distributing books and illustrated publications in English, French, German, Spanish, and Italian. These were offered for single-copy sale or by subscription and distributed nationally through the company’s coordination with the Union News Company’s network of rail-station newsstands.

By 1927, the company was advertising itself as "America’s Largest Importers of Foreign Publications" from a new address at 131 Varick Street, New York City. Although this ad focused on illustrated weeklies, the infrastructure and promotional language applied equally to the visually rich children’s books the company helped bring to market. The Varick Street location placed it in the Hudson Square district—a growing publishing and warehousing hub in the 1920s.

The infrastructure these companies helped build was crucial to the dissemination of European books, including children’s picture books and mechanically illustrated titles. These imports were facilitated by expanding rail networks and favorable postal rates that enabled rapid, economical delivery to American cities and rural outposts. Distribution monopolies allowed firms like the International News Company to serve as logistical and commercial bridges between continental publishers and English-speaking consumers—particularly important for specialized books that would not otherwise have been viable to import in small quantities.

While the American News Company eventually collapsed in 1957 following mounting antitrust scrutiny, labor disputes, and the loss of key publishing clients, its decades-long dominance left an indelible mark on the American publishing landscape. The dismantling of this distribution giant signaled the end of an era in which a single company could dictate the flow of print culture across the United States. Though the International News Company vanished with its parent firm, its role in importing and adapting foreign illustrated books—especially German movable titles—remains a significant chapter in the history of transatlantic publishing.

The legacy of the International News Company endures in the rare books market. English-language editions of German movable books issued through their channels are now exceptionally scarce, as many were printed in limited runs or as seasonal novelties. Their rarity is compounded by the fragility of the paper engineering used in their construction.

Sample of German Movables Published by International News Company:

A full-page advertisement from the 1884 issue of The American Bookseller: A Semi-monthly Journal Devoted to the Book and Stationery Trade (p. 393) confirms the International News Company’s early and central role in distributing Meggendorfer’s movable works and Schreiber’s theatrical pop-up books to the North American holiday gift market. The books were marketed as “complete novelties in the line of Children’s Picture Books.” Titles listed include:

Moving Picture Series by L. Meggendorfer and 4 volumes of The Showman’s Series

Other Notable examples are:
The Crib: A Picture Book for Standing Up, issued circa 1893 in New York, adapts Schreiber’s Christmas nativity flipbook Die Krippe.(pictured above)

The German theatrical pop-up Lebende Bilder appears to have been released in English by the International News Company around 1884.

Columbus Panorama: Three Pictures from American History, printed around 1893 by J. F. Schreiber, is another key example of this international collaboration. A German-language edition titled Columbus-Panorama. Drei Bilder aus der amerikanischen Geschichte is pictured in our Virtula Museum and notably carries the International News Company’s name on the cover, despite being in German. This indicates that the firm not only imported English versions but also distributed German-language editions directly to German-speaking communities in the U.S. The panoramic pop-up format, colorful chromolithography, and parallel titling in English and German suggest a deliberate bilingual publishing strategy tailored to multiple American audiences.

References

American News Trade Journal. Volumes 8–9. New York: American News Company, 1926. (Confirms the firm’s importation of European publications in multiple languages and lists its Duane Street address in the 1920s.)

"The International News Company." Advertisement. The Wide World Magazine, vol. 60 (1927): 12. (Identifies the company’s promotional claim as "America’s Largest Importers of Foreign Publications" and provides its later address at 131 Varick Street.)

"The International News Company." Advertisement. Proceedings of the International Convention of the Young Men’s Christian Associations of North America, vol. 23 (1879): [n.p.]. (Documents early address at 31 Beekman Street and confirms continuity from the Willmer & Rogers News Company.)

Publishers Weekly. Vol. 55. New York: R.R. Bowker Company, 1899, 626. (Provides obituary details for Adalbert Peppmüller and outlines his role in expanding the foreign department to include key German publishers.)

Johanningsmeier, Charles. Fiction and the American Literary Marketplace: The Role of Newspaper Syndicates in America, 1860–1900. Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 2002, 20–30. (Analyzes the broader role of the American News Company and its affiliates in centralizing U.S. book and magazine distribution.)

Wikipedia contributors. "American News Company." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Last modified June 2025. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_News_Company (Background on the American News Company’s foundation, monopoly status, and eventual collapse.)

Melvyn Dubofsky, ed., The Oxford Encyclopedia of American Business, Labor, and Economic History, vol. 1 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013), s.v. “American News Company.” (This entry explains that the American News Company's collapse stemmed from a combination of antitrust scrutiny, changes in the publishing industry, and the rise of independent wholesalers.)