Despite numerous experiments in printed news during the 15th and 16th centuries, most experts and institutions point to November 16, 1665, as the birth date of the newspaper (emphasis on paper as the pamphlet-style newsbooks were the precursors to newspapers). On November 16, 1665, the Oxford Gazette was printed about 60 miles northwest of London in Oxford, England, where King Charles II had moved his Royal Court to avoid the Great Plague, or Black Death. As the official publication of the King, it was vital that newspaper maintain circulation throughout the region, especially London, so the Oxford Gazette was printed in two locations – with one printer in Oxford and one printer in London – which can be discerned by the publisher’s imprint on the verso.
In February 1666, the King decided that the Plague had subsided enough to move his Court back to London, and he brought the Oxford Gazette along. With issue No. 24, datelined February 1 to 5, 1665 (Julian Calendar), it became the legendary London Gazette, an official newspaper still published today. The London Gazette demonstrated major influence on many publishers as single-sheets newspapers with text-divided columns became the next big thing. The trend-setting Gazette also played a critical role in feeding American colonists’ appetite for news. Copies of the Gazette were shipped across the Atlantic Ocean – usually taking four to eight weeks per voyage – to provide English and European residents in the New World with reports from their homelands. A thriving transatlantic readership and hunger for homeland news, in part, are the reasons why we didn’t see the first successful newspaper printed on American soil until 1704.
Below is a list of the first 21 American newspapers with the start date and length of first run for each title – many of which restarted, often under new management, at later dates. Keep in mind that this list does not include the first attempted newspaper, Publick Occurrences, which was printed on September 25, 1690, but was banned after the first issue.
1. Boston News-Letter – April 24, 1704 – 1776 (Boston)
2. Boston Gazette – December 21, 1719 – 1798 (Boston)
3. American Weekly Mercury – December 22, 1719 – 1749 (Philadelphia)
4. New England Courant – August 7, 1721 – 1727 (Boston)
5. New York Gazette – November 8, 1725 – 1744 (New York)
6. New England Weekly Journal – March 20, 1727 – 1741 (Boston)
7. Maryland Gazette – September 16, 1727 – 1734, 1745 – 1820+ (Annapolis)
8. Pennsylvania Gazette – December 24, 1728 – 1815 (Philadelphia)
9. Weekly Rehearsal – September 27, 1731 – 1735 (Boston)
10. South Carolina Gazette – January 8, 1732 – 1775 (Charleston)
11. Rhode Island Gazette – September 27, 1732 – 1733 (Newport)
12. New York Weekly Journal – November 5, 1733 – 1751 (New York)
13. Boston Weekly Post-Boy – November 18, 1734-1775 (Boston)
14. Boston Evening-Post – August 18, 1735 – 1775 (Boston)
15. Virginia Gazette – August 6, 1736 – 1750 (Williamsburg)
16. Pennsylvania Journal – December 2, 1742 – 1793 (Philadelphia)
17. New York Weekly Post-Boy – January 3, 1743 – 1747 (New York)
18. Independent Advertiser – January 4, 1748 – 1749 (Boston)
19. North Carolina Gazette – August 9, 1751 – 1759 (New Bern)
20. New York Mercury – August 3, 1752 – 1768 (New York)
21. Connecticut Gazette – April 12, 1755 – 1768 (New Haven)
According to this list and highlighted in The History of Printing in America by Isaiah Thomas, only four newspapers existed in New England in 1754 – all weeklies printed in Boston and they never printed more than 600 copies. Still, between April 1704 and April 1775, 78 different newspapers were printed in the colonies, but many quickly ceased production. When the American Revolutionary War started in 1775, there were 37 newspapers printing in the colonies. In 1800, there were at least 150 newspapers in total, and 10 years later the newspaper count was more than 360.
According to Readex’s America’s Historical Newspapers, after the Civil War, the number and size of newspapers continued to grow rapidly. The adoption of the telegraph and the prevalence of the Associated Press contributed to a second transformation of the newspaper industry during the second half of the 19th century. Daily editions replaced many weeklies, and—by the early 20th century—nearly every town in the United States had its own newspaper.
