Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (orig. US) a seller of newspapers in the street; orig. boys and girls only, the term spread, as did the job, to include adults; thus attrib.

1875		North Alabamian (Tuscaloosa, AL) 1 July 3/2: A newsboy on the M. and C. road was cruelly beating a dog which had jumped on the train, when its owner suddenly appeared at the car door, knocked ‘newsy’ off and commenced to pay him in his own coin .
1898		J.D. Brayshaw Slum Silhouettes 118: That’s ninepence I owes Newsy; must pay that or there won’t be no papers.
1904		R. McCardell Show Girl and Her Friends 62: I tipped Moxie, the newsy, [...] to tell Louie and Abie we wanted to see them.
1906		S. Ford Shorty McCabe 188: He freezes to her like a Park Row wuxtree boy does to a turkey drumstick at a newsies’ Christmas dinner.
1910		‘O. Henry’ ‘The Poet and the Peasant’ in Strictly Business (1915) 79: A hurt look appeared through the dirt on the newsy’s face.
1916		C. Sandburg ‘Bronzes’ Chicago Poems 25: His bronze forehead meeting soft echoes of the newsies crying forty thousand men are dead along the Yser.
1929		E. Dahlberg Bottom Dogs 33: He liked any kind of a ride; and often got an old newspaper [...] and went up and down the aisle, as a newsie, calling, ‘Kansas City Star’.
1930		C.R. Shaw Jack-Roller 141: This alley was usually filled with a large number of ‘newsies’ and truck chauffeurs.
1947		N. Algren Neon Wilderness (1986) 111: The kid [...] had wandered off to match nickels with the corner newsie.
1951		N. Algren Chicago: City On the Make 79: Town of the blind and crippled newsies.
1953		‘John Eagle’ Hoodlums (2021) 41: Barney, the cynical jockey-sized newsboy, had his hand deep in the newsie change apron.
1970		E. Thompson Garden of Sand (1981) 353: A legless old newsie strapped on a platform that had three-inch steel ball bearings for wheels.
1981		J. Ellroy Brown’s Requiem 184: The bartender and a crippled old black news vendor were reading the Times article [...] ‘Po’ motherfuckas,’ the old newsy was saying.
1999		J. Ridley Everybody Smokes in Hell 51: Paris got himself a copy, quarter tossed to the newsy who worked the stand.

2. (US) a newspaper.

1942

‘Marienne’ ‘Solid Meddlin’’ in People’s Voice (NY) 14 Mar. 33/1: Seems that Ted [Yates] is syndicating to 243 newsies from Coast-to-Coast and B[illy] R[owe] [...] only puts down the pencil point in just one.

3. (US) a news broadcaster or journalist.

1960, 1975		Wentworth & Flexner DAS.
1975		Wash. Post 22 Oct. B8/4: The Rockefeller name does intimidate. We had him there for hours and I didn’t see one of us newsies dare to go over and ask him the questions we should have .
1985		J. Wambaugh Secrets of Harry Bright (1986) 270: He even sees a newsie snap a picture a these weird cops.
2012		(con. 1954) ‘Jack Tunney’ Tomato Can Comeback [ebook] I stank up the ring that night. Compared to the other newsies, Mr Schwartz handled me gentle.

4. a newsagent’s.

2003

N. Griffiths Stump 158: I go into the newsy’s/general store on the prom.