Question

how did early american printers prepare the letters for a newspaper page?

Answer 1

In the 1700's, 35 newspapers were published in the 13 colonies. Many of these papers and their successors over the next few generations were concerned with political issues of the day and were rather expensive. This changed during the 1830s, when technology and publicity popularized "penny papers." The NY Sun was one of the first of these to gain widespread readership.