Bulldog edition

A bulldog edition is an early edition, or the first edition, of a daily newspaper and can be dated in advance. It is sometimes called the street edition.
Purpose.
The purpose of a bulldog edition has been defined as intended for distribution out of town or for "distant readers." These editions also attracted street sales, as opposed to home delivery.
Publication date.
Journalism professor Frank Thayer wrote in 1954 that a Sunday bulldog edition is often printed as early as the Tuesday preceding the date it bears and is sent to far distant points . . . in many cases as far ahead of its date as Thursday or Friday.
 If it is not sold until Sunday, it is not properly a bulldog edition, but it is a Sunday predate.
A 1993 article in "Books at Iowa" said that a bulldog edition is "often composed largely of material from the previous day's last edition."
Etymology.
Writer H.L. Mencken tried to track down the name but reported, "Origin of bulldog has been discussed at great length but so far as I know the problem has never been solved."
Theories that have been offered for the derivation of the term have been:
Competition.
An early explanation of the origin of the term came from the trade magazine "Editor & Publisher," which said in 1932 or before that the usage "probably" began in the 1890s when the "New York World," the "Herald" and the "Journal" "fought like bulldogs" to "get out editions that would catch the mails going out of town."
A letter from S.L. Dare of the reference department, "Editor & Publisher," stated in 1940:
A good many years ago, when the New York newspapers were fighting for circulation, the "World" and the "American" (I think) struggled furiously to get the first morning edition on a train for the west. It was said that they fought like bulldogs; hence that particular edition has always been known as the "bulldog."
The "Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins" suggested that the term dates back to New York City’s newspaper wars of the 1890s, when rival papers were competing for morning readers with special editions sold by street vendors very early in the day. These papers were baptized "bulldogs" presumably because the publishers fought like bulldogs over circulation.
Night workers.
It was a borrowing from nautical terminology, the dog watch being an evening shift, when printers had to work to put out an early edition for a morning paper.
Other.
Other suggested derivations of the term:
Complaints.
In the early and middle 20th Century, some complaints were made that the publication of news in a bulldog edition was dishonest or led to mistakes.
Startups.
The "Seattle Post-Intelligencer" began new early editions in 1922. A "Pippin edition" was issued every Sunday at 6:30 p.m. in advance of the regular bulldog, to carry on its front page the latest baseball scores. The newspaper said the edition "corresponds somewhat with the Peach edition issued by the "Chicago Herald-Examiner"." There was also a Rabbit edition, designed for Montana, the Dakotas, and other territory east of the Washington state line.
In October 1931, the "Honolulu Advertiser" started an experimental home delivery of a bulldog edition of the next day's paper, to be delivered between 7 and 8:30 p.m.
The "St. Louis Post-Dispatch," an afternoon newspaper, in October 1983 started a bulldog edition that was on sale by 10 a.m. downtown and "slightly later" elsewhere.
The "Detroit Free Press," a morning paper, in 1983 unveiled a bulldog edition that was available at convenience stores and in the newspaper's dispensing boxes in the evening.
The "Tampa Tribune" of Tampa, Florida, in September 1998 began a bulldog edition, which it said would be a "day-early edition of the Sunday paper." It was to be available at convenience stores and supermarkets in certain counties. The newspaper said:
The new product is a twist on a decades-old tool being rejuvenated in recent years by newspapers in such cities as Dallas, Fort Worth, Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Houston, Palm Beach and Miami.
It is aimed at selling more papers by attracting readers who want a jump on clipping coupons and reading the retail and classified advertising sections [and to] bump up circulation that has been sagging or flat in some cities because of changing reader habits. 
"Tribune" publisher Reid Ashe said in 1998 that newspapers which had begun the practice had posted circulation gains from 5,000 to 75,000 copies after introducing bulldogs, which extended the shelf life of the Sunday newspapers.
The "Tribune" bulldog was to be "vastly different from the typical Sunday paper," Ashe said, so that it would not "look like a newspaper." Its front page was to be made up "exclusively of headlines, photos and short promotions of stories featured inside the paper."
The "Palm Beach Post" introduced a bulldog on August 29, 1998, and saw a "circulation bump."
Other uses.
A Broadway theater in New York City used the term in March 1912 to identify a special afternoon performance of "The Truth Wagon," a newspaper-themed play at Daly's Theater, "for the benefit of the morning newspaper men."
In 1980, a race horse named "Bulldog Edition" was running in Pennsylvania.
In November 1978, the "New York Daily News" began a radio program called "Bulldog Edition" that presented news which would be in the next day's newspaper.