The subscription salesman was Ira Berry and, true to his word, he did indeed start a newspaper. The first issue of the "Norway Advertiser" appeared on Tuesday, March 10, 1844. In the April 12, 1844 issue, Berry and his co-publisher, Francis Blake, Jr., wrote in a "Prospectus" for the "Advertiser": "It may be well to state that it is not intended to make the paper the organ of any political party, nor to interfere with partisan politics." The editorial, which billed the "Advertiser" as "A newspaper calculated for working men and their families," may well have been a jab at the rival "Oxford Democrat".