History of Newspapers

The history of newspapers is surprisingly long, as broad definitions for it allow for many early news sources to be considered as newspapers. For example, government reports of the current news in Ancient China and Ancient Rome are considered to at least be ancestors of the newspaper if they are not considered as newspapers proper.

In the earliest days of newspapers, they were handwritten and thus did not enjoy widespread circulation. Literacy was also rare, so the earliest examples of news writings were almost certainly the purview of the upper classes and those who served them in an intellectual capacity. The Ancient Chinese government news reports, for instance, were intended solely for servants of the Imperial government. Wider distribution was not official, it was simply organised by those who understood that knowledge would empower them.

Britain's press can trace its history back more than 300 years, to the time of William of Orange. Berrow's Worcester Journal, which started life as the Worcester Postman in 1690 and was published regularly from 1709, is believed to be the oldest surviving English newspaper.

William Caxton had introduced the first English printing press in 1476 and, by the early 16th century, the first 'news papers' were seen in Britain. They were, however, slow to evolve, with the largely illiterate population relying on town criers for news. Between 1640 and the Restoration, around 30,000 'news letters' and 'news papers' were printed, many of which can be seen today in the British Museum. The first regular English daily newspaper, the Daily Courant, was launched with the reign of Queen Anne in 1702. The very first daily newspaper, the Daily Courant, was first published in London on March 11, 1702 by Edward Mallet. At the time, it ran two columns that published news from abroad. The Observer began publishing in 1791.

The 19th century saw a lot of growth for the British newspaper industry. As taxes on paper were lowered, it became cheaper for printers to publish them every day which was a huge change for the industry. The Daily Universal Register, later known as The Times, began publishing in 1855. The paper's name would later be changed to The Times in 1788. The Times was the biggest paper for a brief period but as others cropped up, the field became more competitive.

The first truly cheap newspaper to establish itself around this time was the Daily Telegraph and Courier in 1885; it's now called the Daily Telegraph. 1896 saw the rise of another popular paper, The Daily Mail. All in all, the 19th century was the “golden age” of newspapers in Britain when many papers found their footholds and soon buying a newspaper was as much a part of someone's morning as their trip to work.

The 20th century has been a big era for the British newspaper. Many, many new papers have emerged all over the country. Most cities have their own privately-published papers that circulate weekly, and there are several major publications that are published daily. The format of some papers also changed. In 1914 The Times published its first half-tone photo, the Sunday Express published its first crossword puzzle. 

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Read more: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/482597/history-of-publishing/28661/Commercial-newsletters-in-continental-Europe#toc28662