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The mass-appeal penny press or penny papers owe their origin to Benjamin Henry Day (1810 - 1889), a printer who was the "father of the penny press." In 1833, he started the New York Sun, priced at a penny a copy when other daily newspapers were selling for five cents or more. Its success stimulated the formation of other penny papers, including the New York Herald and New York Tribune.
In the days when people picked up pennies and saved them, editors used the term "penny-a-liner" as a description of a pulp magazine writer or other hack writer who was paid by the line - not necessarily a penny, but a low rate for drudgery.
A cardinal rule among lexicographers is not to use archaic or esoteric words. So here are definitions of two of the preceding terms.
A pulp magazine is printed on ground wood pulp or other coarse, cheap paper, as contrasted with magazines printed on coated, glossy...