Let me help you out, Dick. The “journalists” of 200 years ago were everyday citizens just like today. You don’t have to be corralled by a big time “news” media corporation to enjoy your rights to a free press. Anyone who can afford a press is a member of the free press. Same now as it was 200 years ago.
More backup.
http://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=5706334303740337745&hl=en&as_sdt=2,19&as_vis=1
303 U.S. 444 (1938)
LOVELL
v.
CITY OF GRIFFIN.
The liberty of the press is not confined to newspapers and periodicals. It necessarily embraces pamphlets and leaflets. These indeed have been historic weapons in the defense of liberty, as the pamphlets of Thomas Paine and others in our own history abundantly attest. The press in its historic connotation comprehends every sort of publication which affords a vehicle of information and opinion. What we have had recent occasion to say with respect to the vital importance of protecting this essential liberty from every sort of infringement need not be repeated.