The adventure of telegraphy in the United States shifted newsgathering from the public postal system to a private network dominated by telegraph companies and wire services, a nearly simultaneous revolution in journalism's technology and political economy. Postal newsgathering had been open to all newspapers with few costs and constrains, while its telegraphic successor developed amid a web of regulations. A changing configuration of occupational rules, private business arrangements, and public laws regulated each stage in the production of thelegraphic news, from source-reporter interactions to post-publication liability. This monograph analyzes the origins of rules that governed timely news - determining who got it, how fast, and on what term - from the advent of telecommunication on the eclipse of telegraphic news relays.