Europe '
Relation from 1609, the first newspaper 's portrait
Newspaper readers, 1840
Predecessors Early development The first mechanical, movable type printing that allowed the mass production of printed material was invented by
Johann Gutenberg around 1450. In the 50 years after Gutenberg started printing, an estimated 500,000 books were in circulation, printed on about 1,000 presses across the continent. Gutenberg's invention was a simple device, but it launched a revolution marked by repeated advances in technology and, as a result, a popularization of the ideals of liberty and freedom of information exchange. The emergence of the new media in the 17th century has to be seen in close connection with the
spread of the printing press from which the publishing
press derives its name. The German-language
Relation aller Fürnemmen und gedenckwürdigen Historien, printed from 1605 onwards by
Johann Carolus in
Strasbourg in the
Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, is often recognized as the first newspaper. The second newspaper, the German
Avisa, was published from 1609 in
Wolfenbüttel. Both newspapers distinguished themselves from other printed material by being published on a regular basis. They reported on a variety of current events to a broad public audience. Within a few decades, newspapers could be found in all the major cities of Europe, from
Venice to London. The Dutch
Courante uyt Italien, Duytslandt, &c. ("Courant from Italy, Germany, etc.") of 1618 was the first to appear in
folio- rather than quarto-size. Amsterdam, a center of world trade, quickly became home to newspapers in many languages, often before they were published in their own country. The first English-language newspaper,
Corrant out of Italy, Germany, etc., was published in Amsterdam in 1620. In the same year, the
Antwerp periodial
Nieuwe Tijdinghen was published by
Abraham Verhoeven. In 1621, was published in England by an "N.B." (generally thought to be either
Nathaniel Butter or Nicholas Bourne) and Thomas Archer. The first newspaper in France was published in 1631, (originally published as ). The first newspaper in Italy, in accordance with the oldest issue still preserved, was
Di Genova published in 1639 in
Genoa. The first newspaper in Portugal,
A Gazeta da Restauração, was published in 1641 in
Lisbon. The first Spanish newspaper,
Gaceta de Madrid, was published in 1661.
Post- och Inrikes Tidningar (founded as
Ordinari Post Tijdender), first published in Sweden in 1645, is the oldest newspaper still in existence, though it now publishes solely online.
Opregte Haarlemsche Courant from
Haarlem, first published in 1656, is the oldest paper still printed. It was forced to merge with the newspaper
Haarlems Dagblad in 1942 when Germany occupied the Netherlands. Since then the
Haarlems Dagblad has appeared with the subtitle
Oprechte Haerlemse Courant 1656.
Merkuriusz Polski Ordynaryjny was published in
Kraków, Poland in 1661. The first successful English daily,
The Daily Courant, was published from 1702 to 1735.
Americas by
Marguerite Martyn in the
St. Louis Post-Dispatch on October 21, 1906. On the far left, a group of men share reading a newspaper. In Boston in 1690,
Benjamin Harris published
Publick Occurrences Both Forreign and Domestick. This is considered the first newspaper in the
American colonies even though only one edition was published before the paper was suppressed by the government. In 1704, the governor allowed
The Boston News-Letter to be published and it became the first continuously published newspaper in the colonies. Soon after, weekly papers began being published in New York and Philadelphia. These early newspapers followed the British format and were usually four pages long. They mostly carried news from Britain and content depended on the editor's interests. In 1783, the
Pennsylvania Evening Post became the first American daily. In 1752,
John Bushell published the
Halifax Gazette, which claims to be "Canada's first newspaper". However, its official descendant, the
Royal Gazette, is a government publication for legal notices and proclamations rather than a proper newspaper; In 1764, the
Quebec Gazette was first printed 21 June 1764 and remains the oldest continuously published newspaper in North America as the
Quebec Chronicle-Telegraph. It is currently published as an English-language weekly from its offices at 1040 Belvédère, suite 218, Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. In 1808, the had its first edition, printed in devices brought from England, publishing news favourable for the government of the
United Kingdom of Portugal, Brazil and the Algarves since it was produced by the official press service of the Portuguese crown. In 1821, after the ending of the ban of private newspaper circulation, appears the first non-imperial printed publication,
Diário do Rio de Janeiro, though there existed already the
Correio Braziliense, published by Hipólito José da Costa at the same time as the
Gazeta, but from
London and with forcefully advocated political and critical ideas, aiming to expose the administration's flaws. The first newspaper in Peru was
El Peruano, established in October 1825 and still published today, but with several name changes.
Asia During the
Tang dynasty in China (618–906), the
Kaiyuan Za Bao published the government news; it was
block-printed onto paper. It is sometimes considered one of the earliest newspapers to be published. The first recorded attempt to found a newspaper of the modern type in South Asia was by
William Bolts, a Dutchman in the employ of the British East India Company in September 1768 in Calcutta. However, before he could begin his newspaper, he was deported back to Europe. In 1780 the first newsprint from this region, ''
Hicky's Bengal Gazette, was published by an Irishman, James Augustus Hicky. He used it as a means to criticize the British rule through journalism. The Jobo'', discussed in the
Annals of the Joseon Dynasty, was published in 1577 by
King Seonjo's ministers. As the King had not given permission to print the news bulletins,
Jobo was discontinued, and 30 ministers were sentenced "to a severe punishment". It was printed daily, and covered a range of topics, including weather, constellations, and current affairs. In 2017, a Korean monk claimed to have discovered an extant copy of the
Jobo.
Middle East The history of
Middle Eastern newspapers goes back to the 19th century. Many editors were not only journalists but also writers, philosophers and politicians. With unofficial journals, these intellectuals encouraged public discourse on politics in the
Ottoman and
Persian Empires. Literary works of all genres were serialized and published in the press as well. The first newspapers in the Ottoman Empire were owned by foreigners living there who wanted to make propaganda about the Western world. The earliest was printed in 1795 by the
Palais de France in
Pera. Indigenous Middle Eastern journalism started in 1828, when
Muhammad Ali,
Khedive of Egypt, ordered the local establishment of the gazette
Vekâyi-i Mısriyye (
Egyptian Affairs). It was first paper written in
Ottoman Turkish and
Arabic on opposite pages, and later in Arabic only, under the title "
Al-Waqāʾiʿ al-Miṣriyya". The first non-official Turkish newspaper,
Ceride-i Havadis (Register of Events), was published by an Englishman, William Churchill, in 1840. The first private newspaper to be published by Turkish journalists,
Tercüman-ı Ahvâl (Interpreter of Events), was founded by
İbrahim Şinasi and
Agah Efendi and issued in 1860. The first newspaper in Iran,
Kaghaz-e Akhbar (The Newspaper), was created for the government by
Mirza Saleh Shirazi in 1837. The first journals in the
Arabian Peninsula appeared in
Hijaz, once it had become independent of Ottoman rule, towards the end of World War I. One of the earliest women to sign her articles in the Arab press was the female medical practitioner
Galila Tamarhan, who contributed articles to a medical magazine called "''Ya'asub al-Tib''" (Leader in Medicine) in the 1860s.
Industrial Revolution By the early 19th century, many cities in Europe, as well as North and South America, published newspaper-type publications though not all of them developed in the same way; content was vastly shaped by regional and cultural preferences. Advances in printing technology related to the
Industrial Revolution enabled newspapers to become an even more widely circulated means of communication, as new printing technologies made printing less expensive and more efficient. In 1814,
The Times (London) acquired a printing press capable of making 1,100 impressions per hour. Soon, this press was adapted to print on both sides of a page at once. This innovation made newspapers cheaper and thus available to a larger part of the population. In 1830, the first inexpensive "
penny press" newspaper came to the market: Lynde M. Walter's Boston
Transcript. Penny press papers cost about one sixth the price of other newspapers and appealed to a wider audience, including less educated and lower-income people. In France,
Émile de Girardin started in 1836, introducing cheap, advertising-supported dailies to France. In 1848,
August Zang, an Austrian who knew Girardin in Paris, returned to Vienna to introduce the same methods with (which was named for and frankly copied Girardin's publication). ==Categories==