What was there before newspapers? Ever thought about that perhaps you've seen how in movies
messengers race back from the battlefields with reports on victories or defeats. Word of mouth
was the primary source of spreading the news. Humans exchanged news long before they could
write. Merchants, sailors and travelers brought the news to the continent, then peddlers and traveling
players picked them up and spread them from town to town, criers walked through villages:
announcing births, deaths, marriages and divorces. But how did the history of newspapers begin?
Among the first ones who found a written way to distribute the news were the ancient romans.
Acta diorna or the daily doings were created by the government and contained
information for the public such as: chronicles of events, births, deaths and daily gossip. These
daily doings are considered to be one of the first precursors to the modern newspaper.
1440 was an important year for the publishing world. Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing
press and the history of newspapers was influenced significantly. The printing press allowed for the
high quality reproduction of printed materials at a rate of nearly four thousand pages per day.
In other words one thousand times more than can be done by a scribe by hand. The appearance of the
printing press also brought the appearance of the first newspaper. Yes ,you've heard me
right, the very first newspaper that has ever been published. When? 1609 Where? In Germany.
By whom? Johann Carlos. What was its name? Relation uh, you know what? Whatever, you see it on screen.
News spread out faster than expected in a short period of time. All of Europe was populated with
newspapers and they even made their way to the new world America. On september 25th in 1690, in Boston,
Benjamin Harris published Public occurrences, both foreign and domestic, the first american
newspaper. Everyone thought that they had the liberty to write the news freely and truthfully.
Unfortunately, that was not the case. A concept like freedom of press was soon introduced in 1791.
You've probably heard about this: The first Amendment in the bill of rights guaranteed the
liberty of expressing yourself in the U.S, but it wasn't until two years later that Thomas Jefferson
obtained the freedom of the press for real and for good. Right after this great achievement,
more and more newspapers were published in America, but they were so expensive that only the wealthy
ones could buy them. That was only until the 1830s, when technology changed the course of events and
made it easier for publishers to print and distribute newspapers. With the help of the
penny press the news became available for everyone. The sun was the first penny press newspaper in the
United States that sold copies for just a penny. The history of newspapers was highly influenced by
the industrial revolution giant presses capable of printing ten thousand papers per hour, contributed
to the massive growth in the newspaper industry. From 2526 newspapers in 1850 to more than 11 000
newspapers by 1880 and by 1890 some papers boasted circulation above 1 million copies.
Moving on to the early 20th century when color photographs and other elements such:
as banner headlines illustrations and comics revolutionized the look of the newspapers.
Speaking of comics The yellow kid is one of the first U.S newspaper comic
strips that existed from 1895 to 1898 and was a huge success.
Though the addition of color made the newspapers even more popular they started to face serious
competition, when the radio and television made their debut, news over the radio was immediately
available. Rather than waiting for the next day to wake up and buy the newspaper. Good evening, here is
the official weather forecast from the United States Weather Bureau at the Billings Airport.
And then the news formats on television were a lot more engaging when compared to the print or radio,
because it was something modern and way faster people were glued to their television sets between
8pm and 10pm to catch the latest political sports and weather update. Still the newspaper continued
to be a reliable source to read the latest news compared to the new media. The information was
written and detailed and people could reread the newspaper as many times as they wanted.
Fast forward to today, once again technology and the appearance of the computer and most
importantly the internet was a big game changer. The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal
are two old prestigious newspapers that are still making good numbers selling printed publications.
Even if we're living in a high-tech world, there are people who prefer the classic
printed newspapers with their morning coffee, but the digital formats of these publications
are also very popular. With just a few clicks, you can discover the latest news in the fastest way.
The history of newspapers is still being written these days, because people will always choose to
be updated with the latest news and with so much technology that surrounds us everyone, can create
their own newspaper and express themselves freely. Platforms such as Flipsnack help you create your
own newspaper, exactly as you want. Populate it with your own content within minute then choose
to share it online with friends and family or print it for the sake of the classic newspaper.