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History of newspaper publishing. The modern newspaper is a European invention. [1] The oldest direct handwritten news sheets circulated widely in Venice as early as 1566. These weekly news sheets were full of information on wars and politics in Italy and Europe. The first printed newspapers were published weekly in Germany from 1605.
- Overview
- The first newspapers
- Britain
- North America
Newspaper development can be seen in three phases: first, the sporadic forerunners, gradually moving toward regular publication; second, more or less regular journals but liable to suppression and subject to censorship and licensing; and, third, a phase in which direct censorship was abandoned but attempts at control continued through taxation, bri...
Newspaper development can be seen in three phases: first, the sporadic forerunners, gradually moving toward regular publication; second, more or less regular journals but liable to suppression and subject to censorship and licensing; and, third, a phase in which direct censorship was abandoned but attempts at control continued through taxation, bri...
The British press made its debut—an inauspicious one—in the early 17th century. News coverage was restricted to foreign affairs for a long time, and even the first so-called English newspaper was a translation by Nathaniel Butter, a printer, of a Dutch coranto called Corante, or newes from Italy, Germany, Hungarie, Spaine and France, dated September 24, 1621. Together with two London stationers, Nicholas Bourne and Thomas Archer, Butter published a stream of corantos and avisos (Spanish: “warnings” or “announcements”), including a numbered and dated series of Weekley Newes, beginning in 1622. But a number of difficulties confronted a prospective publisher: a license to publish was needed; regular censorship of reporting was in operation from the earliest days; and foreign news no longer appeared because of a decree by the Court of the Star Chamber (in force from 1632 to 1638) completely banning the publication of accounts of the Thirty Years’ War.
Between the abolition of the Star Chamber in 1641 and the establishment of the Commonwealth in 1649, publishers enjoyed a short spell of freedom from strict official control. Publication of domestic news began to appear more regularly, shedding the original book form. News and headlines increasingly replaced the old title page. The English Civil Wars (1642–51) acted as a stimulus to reporters and publishers, and 300 distinct news publications were brought out between 1640 and 1660, although many of these were only occasional reports from the battle front, such as Truths from York or News from Hull. Some contemporary publications, using words such as Intelligencer, Scout, Spy, or Post in their names, reflected the bellicosity of the times, but the less-politicized word Mercury still abounded on many newspaper mastheads, including those of propaganda papers such as Mercurius Academicus (Royalist) and Mercurius Britannicus (Parliamentarian). The Parliamentarian victory brought strict control of the press from 1649 to 1658, and the restored monarchy was even more absolute, with the press being restricted to just two official papers. During the period of the Licensing Act (1662–94), an official surveyor of the press was given the sole privilege of publishing newspapers. The concept of the newspaper of record—the public documentation of legal notices—was established with the Oxford Gazette (founded 1665 and renamed the London Gazette within months), which was eventually followed by the Edinburgh Gazette (founded in 1699) and the Dublin Gazette (founded in 1706, but renamed Iris Oifigiúil in 1922 when the Belfast Gazette was founded). The Glorious Revolution (1688–89) produced a return to more permissive publishing laws and the first provincial presses were set up, starting with the Worcester Post Man (1690).
As it developed, the British press would remain principally a national one centred on Fleet Street in London. Appearing briefly was Lloyd’s News (1696), issuing from Edward Lloyd’s coffeehouse, which had become a centre of marine insurance. The subsequent Lloyd’s List and Shipping Gazette (from 1734), with its combination of general and shipping news, exemplified both the importance of the City of London’s financial activities to the newspapers and the importance of a reliable and regular financial press to business.
In the early years of the 18th century, the British newspaper was approaching its first stage of maturity. After 1691, improvements in the postal system made daily publication practical, the first attempt at doing so being the single-sheet Daily Courant (1702–35), which consisted largely of extracts from foreign corantos. A more radical departure was the triweekly Review (1704–13), produced by Daniel Defoe, in which the writer’s opinion on current political topics was given, introducing the editorial, or leading article. Defoe had been imprisoned, in 1702, for his pamphlet The Shortest Way with Dissenters, but many eminent British writers were being attracted to the newspapers. Henry Muddiman had gained eminence as the “journalist” who edited the London Gazette (from 1666). John Milton had edited the Mercurius Politicus under Oliver Cromwell, and Sir Richard Steele and Joseph Addison, The Spectator (published daily 1711–12). The Spectator and The Tatler (triweekly, 1709–11, also written by Steele) are commemorated in the modern magazines of the same name (see below Magazine publishing), but their incorporation of social and artistic news and comment influenced the content of the contemporary newspaper permanently. Sales of the popular Spectator sometimes ran as high as 3,000 copies, and already this circulation level was enough to attract advertising. An excise duty on advertisements was introduced by the Stamp Act (1712), along with other so-called taxes on knowledge aimed at curbing the nascent power of the press. The rate of duty, at one penny on a whole sheet (four sides of print), was the same as the cover price of The Spectator, and this effective doubling of the price killed it, along with many other newspapers. But the newspaper had already become a permanent part of the social and literary life in London, and not even higher duties could prevent the proliferation of newspaper titles throughout the century.
In North America, publication of newspapers was deterred during colonial times by the long arm of the British law, but after independence the United States could boast one of the world’s least restrictive sets of laws on publication. A first attempt at publishing, albeit abortive, was made in Boston by a radical from London, Benjamin Harris, in 1690. His Publick Occurrences, Both Foreign and Domestick, intended as a monthly series, was immediately stopped by the governor of Massachusetts. It was clear that free speech and a nonofficial press were not to be tolerated in the colonies. Boston was also the site of the first official newspaper, The Boston News-Letter (1704), with which the authorities replaced the proclamations, pamphlets, and newsletters previously used to convey news from London. In 1719 the original title was replaced by the Boston Gazette, printed by Benjamin Franklin’s elder brother, James, who soon produced the first independent American newspaper, the New-England Courant of 1721. William Bradford founded the first New York City newspaper, the New-York Gazette, in 1725, and his son Andrew was the first newspaper proprietor in Philadelphia. Further expansion of the colonies created 37 different titles by the outbreak of the American Revolution.
Colonial editors were aware of their responsibilities in creating a historical record of what was to be the new nation, and they cooperated in passing news to one another. In the absence of municipal offices, the printing office and newspaper headquarters often became a vital centre of community life. But frontier tensions led to passionate arguments, and newspapers became closely involved with political change. The Boston Tea Party (1773) itself is said to have been planned in a back room of the Boston Gazette, already nicknamed “Monday’s Dung Barge” by loyalists. After independence the burning issues created with the new republic were aired in many new papers, most of which took up highly partisan stances. Thomas Jefferson and the first Republicans (later Democrats) were supported by the Philadelphia Aurora (1790), while Alexander Hamilton and the Federalists benefited from the support of the Gazette of the United States (1789–1818). Many city papers moved from weekly to daily publication, the first of these being the Pennsylvania Evening Post in 1783. The Pennsylvania Packet changed its name to Pennsylvania Packet and Daily Advertiser when it became a daily in 1784, indicating a new source of revenue for newspapers; and this was confirmed by the New-York Daily Advertiser (1785), the first to be published as a daily from the beginning.
The first newspaper published in the vast expanse between Red River and Victoria was the Saskatchewan Herald, first printed on 25 August 1878 in Battleford. The Edmonton Bulletin printed its first edition on 13 December 1880, the first newspaper in what is now Alberta .
Jun 19, 2017 · The Halifax Gazette was the first newspaper published in what is now Canada. Its first edition, a two-page paper, was printed on 23 March 1752. It was started by John Bushell, a printer who had arrived in Halifax months earlier to run the city’s first printing press.
In 1778 he printed Canada's first entirely French newspaper, The Gazette (Montreal). His editor, Valentin Jautard, chose articles with a radical tone and both men were imprisoned. In 1782, Mesplet was released and allowed to go back to work for the government because he was the only capable printer, though he technically remained imprisoned. [2]
European Roots. The first weekly newspapers to employ Gutenberg’s press emerged in 1609. Although the papers—Relations: Aller Furnemmen, printed by Johann Carolus, and Aviso Relations over Zeitung, printed by Lucas Schulte—did not name the cities in which they were printed to avoid government persecution, their approximate location can be identified because of their use of the German ...
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Oct 15, 2024 · The Mercurius Gallobelgicus (1588–1638) was among the earliest of a number of periodical summaries of the news that began to appear in Europe in the late 16th century. Newspaper names like Mercury, Herald, and Express have always been popular, suggesting the immediacy or freshness of the reading matter.
