In the 1450s, Johannes Gutenberg launched the first media revolution with the inventions of the printing press and movable metal type. These two inventions paved the way for mass production of books and publications for the first time in history. The widespread availability of the printed word on topics such as art, philosophy, politics, science and religion profoundly influenced European intellect and culture, which was the critical movement known as the Renaissance. "One of the first printed works that might qualify as news was an Italian report on a [medieval] tournament printed in about 1470 (the press had arrived in Italy in 1464)," according to A History of News (Stephens, 1997). Similar in age and geography to what Stephens describes as the first printed news is the rare leaf shown above, which was printed in Italy circa 1470 by Wendelin Da Spira with the first movable type ever used in Venice. To help underscore the age of this printed leaf, consider this: The ink pressed on this page was done so before Michelangelo was born (1475), before the Spanish Inquisition began (1481), before Christopher Columbus' first voyage across the Atlantic (1492), before Vasco de Gama sailed from Europe to India (1497-1499), and before Leonardo da Vinci painted The Last Supper (1498).
Throughout Europe during the 1500s, experiments were made at printing news, such as illustrated news broadsides that appealed to a mostly illiterate population. This rare engraved broadside by Frans Hogenberg, the father of illustrated journalism, is dated November 4, 1576, and illustrates with contemporary hand coloring the the Sack of Antwerp during the Eighty Years' War, known as the Spanish Fury. The Spanish Fury was "one of the most notable deeds of blood upon record -- [7000] human beings butchered and houses burned -- how the city was plundered," as reported 300 years later in the November 25, 1876 issue of the New York Times. According to the Hollstein Studies in Prints and Printmaking, Frans Hogenberg moved from England to Cologne in 1570 and founded a publishing house. With a large staff, Hogenberg’s scope of work moved beyond maps, cityscapes and portraits. Starting in 1570, Hogenberg began work on broadsheets illustrating historic political and military events that took place in Europe during the 16th century. Knowing that Hogenberg’s illustrated journalism career began in 1570, only his engravings of events dated after 1570 can truly be considered news broadsides because they were published in a timely manner, often only weeks after the event occurred. His pre-1570 work is more accurately labeled historical broadsides.
With strict government control of the presses, handwritten letters and the spoken word were the most common news transmissions during this time. In this example from 1614, letters from Cesar de Vendome, illegitimate son of Henri IV, to his half-brother Louis XIII are printed for circulation. Henri IV was King of France from 1589 to 1610 and Louis XIII reigned from 1610 to 1643. In these letters, Cesar de Vendome complains to then French King Louis XIII about the way the court has treated him as he had been imprisoned and his property confiscated for his participation in the aristocratic revolts of 1614. This led to increased animosity between the two. In this instance, a manuscript news letter had become printed news.
It wasn't until the Thirty Years' War, 1618 to 1648, that news began to be printed more regularly to satisfy an intense hunger for information about current events. By 1621, weekly news pamphlets or single-sheet corantos were being printed across Europe. According to Breaking News (Kyle and Peacey, 2008), Thomas Scott anonymously published Vox Populi, or Newes from Spayne. "It was a highly critical attack on the foriegn policy of James I and his negotiations with Catholic Spain to marry his son, Charles, to a Spanish Princess." The pamphlet was "designed to look like a news report from the Spanish ambassador to his superiors in Madrid, and widely believed to be accurate. The government hunted for its author and attempted to stop its publication. Hastily and poorly printed editions flowed off the presses before the government pressure halted production. Quickly though they handed the text to scriveners and manuscript copies continued to circulate. Printed news had become manuscript news."
In England, a 1586 Star Chamber decree from the Elizabethan era required all news publications to be licensed and censored. "Hence printed publications of domestic news tended to be restricted to sensation, disasters, crimes, proclamations and the monarch's speeches. Foreign political news could usually be reported in detail. Domestic political commentary was avoided," according to Pamphlets and Pamphleteering in Early Modern Britain (Raymond 2003). With strict control of the press, these earliest forms of printed news were almost exclusively comprised of foreign news, such as the Swedish Intelligencer, the fourth part, printed in 1633 by Nathaniel Butter and Nicholas Bourne. Nathaniel Butter is recognized for having published the first English language news bulletin, Corante, in 1621. While Butter and Bourne dominated early news publishing, the popularity of newsbooks became quickly apparent and publishers soon began dating and numbering each issue.
It wasn't until the outbreak of the British Civil Wars (1642 - 1651) between the King and Parliament when restraints of news printing weakened. This breakdown in command ushered in a new era of newsbooks, such as the distinct A Perfect Diurnall, which was edited by Samuel Pecke, considered by many historians as the first English journalist. A Perfect Diurnall, published both domestic and foreign news from 1642 through 1655 with no text-dividing columns. It was among the first to regularly use woodcut illustrations and influenced several imitator "diurnals". The Civil Wars also witnessed a war of words via the presses with Royalist and Parliamentarian newsbooks "wildly spinning the news of the conflict and both parties' rationales for power," according to Ranters and Corantos, an article by Richard Byrne in The Nation, January 12, 2009.
Soon after the British Civil Wars commenced, Mercurius Aulicus began publishing in Oxford as the official organ of the Royalist supporters with financing from the Crown. According to The Writing of Royalism, 1628-1660 by Robert Wilcher, Mercurius Aulicus "was not a 'printer's private enterprise' like the London diurnals, and has a significant place in the history of journalism as 'England's first official newsbook'." The newsbook was edited by John Berkenhead, yet to turn 30. According to biographer P.W. Thomas, Berkenhead's edgy and sardonic style of journalism eclipsed that of Peter Heylyn, a high-powered academic who served as the paper's principal editor.
To rival the Royalist propaganda of Mercurius Aulicus, Parliamentarians began printing their own newsbook. Mercurius Britanicus first published in the summer of 1643 with every intention of returning equally contentious attacks and accusations. Mercurius Britanicus launched the journalism career of 23-year-old Marchamont Nedham, who used his editorial privilege to ruthlessly attack King Charles I. After the Royalists surrendered Oxford on June 24, 1646, Mercurius Aulicus ceased printing and all remaining copies were ordered by the King to be donated to the library of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Meanwhile, Nedham's printed attacks on the King proved too harsh, particularly during delicate war negotiations in 1646, so Parliament imprisoned him for two weeks. After his release, Nedham re-emerged in 1647, having officially flipped sides to edit Mercurius Pragmaticus, a new Cavalier newsbook. In 1649, after Oliver Cromwell lead the Parliamentarians to victory and King Charles I was beheaded, Nedham was incarcerated for six months. Upon his release, Needham turned yet again to realign with the Roundheads and began publishing Mercurius Politicus, one of the officially-licensed newsbooks of the English Commonwealth.
From March 1645 to October 1649, the Moderate Intelligencer, written by John Dillingham and published by Robert White, was one of the most reliable and well respected newsbooks because of Dillingham's unmatched connections to both parliamentary and army leaders; thereby, providing a more moderate and impartial -- perhaps fair and balanced -- perspective, which was a fresh journalistic style that was quickly overshadowed by more aggressive and biased reporting.
The period from 1649 to 1660 in England is often referred to as the interregnum, or a period of political and military discord between monarch reigns. After the execution of King Charles I, England's government was ruled by council, Oliver Cromwell, Richard Cromwell and council again, before General George Monck supported the restoration of Charles II in 1660.
John Berkenhead, of Mercurius Aulicus fame during the 1640s, surged back onto the journalism stage in 1660 after Charles II returned from exile along with many other Royalist supporters. Berkenhead's enduring loyalty to the royalist party earned him the position of chief licenser and surveyor of the press. As licenser, Berkenhead had full Royal-appointed authority to censor any unlicensed publications. Berkenhead was succeeded in October 1663 by Roger L’Estrange.
Around the same time as Berkenhead’s selection, Henry Muddiman was appointed editor of the official newsbook, which was titled Parliamentary Intelligencer on Mondays and Mercurius Publicus on Thursdays. "It had not yet occurred to anyone to issue the same title more than once a week," according to The News Revolution of England (Sommerville, 1996). The Licensing of the Press Act of 1662 officially ended the freedom of the press that was enjoyed during the 1640s and 1650s until 1679 when it expired. "The final phase of the Renaissance witnessed rapid change within the newspaper industry, and the period after the collapse of censorship in 1679 saw the appearance of titles and trends which would shape the modern newspaper," according to Breaking News (Kyle and Peacey, 2008).
Perhaps the most major milestone in newspaper history was the 1665 launch of the Oxford Gazette, considered by many experts and institutions to be the first newspaper ever printed. According to newspaper historian Mark Mitchell, the publication is the first to meet the seven standards for a newspaper including longevity, availability to all classes, and, more importantly, text divided into columns. It was also one of the first to be printed twice-weekly under the same title; whereas earlier twice-weekly newspapers alternated between two titles.
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 newspapers 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 colophon 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 (shown above), 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.
In late 1678, England was consumed by a heated debate on religious persecution. Public fears escalated about the increasing influences of Catholicism. With a Roman Catholic wife and brother, who was also heir to the throne, King Charles II was thought to be too Catholic. This religious hysteria helped one Anglican priest, Titus Oates, concoct a story about a fictitious conspiracy to kill the King.
Exploiting the public panic and anti-Catholic mood of the time, journalist Henry Care published the History of Popery, which when printed for the first time on December 3, 1678, also contained a Weekly Pacquet of Advice from Rome and the Popish Courant. From 1678 to July 1683, this news pamphlet fed the fire of religious debate and helped cement anti-Catholic prejudice.
On July 7, 1679, the twice-weekly
Domestick Intelligence newspaper began printing and, as the title suggested, it focused on local topics.
Domestick Intelligence was published and edited by Benjamin Harris, who moved to Boston in the mid-1680s. On September 25,1690, Harris published the first attempt at an American newspaper,
Publick Occurrences Both Foreign and Domestick. The American newspaper was intended to be printed monthly; however, the first edition was printed without license and featured several eye-brow-raising reports, such as the King of France’s alleged affair with his daughter-in-law. The newspaper was immediately banned and burned under order of Governor Thomas Hinckley with no second edition ever printed. In fact, the only original copy known to survive is held by the British Library, likely the issue sent back to the homeland by the Governor.
At the same time, Roger L’Estrange worked to counter the accusations in printed pamphlets. Demonstrating the art of investigative journalism, L’Estrange revealed several inconsistencies of the supposed “Popish Plot” in his newspaper, the Observator. On April 13, 1681, L'Estrange, still chief licenser and surveyor of the press, began publishing the Observator, a newspaper similar in looks to the London Gazette, but written as commentary in the form of a point-counter-point dialogue between Whigs and Tories, and clearly favoring the Tory viewpoint. As a result of his reporting on the “Popish Plot,” L’Estrange helped expose the fabricated controversy and convict Oates, who was imprisoned in 1685.
For centuries, religion was tied to territory with the state typically enforcing religious uniformity. However, in late 17th century England, philosophical, political and religious writings laid the intellectual framework for what would eventually come to be known as the separation of church and state, a principle of great importance outlined in the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.
News competition was strong during the days of the diurnalls, mercuries and intelligencers, but the official London Gazette was essentially a news monopoly until the Licensing of the Press Act lapsed between 1679 and 1685, and several unlicensed newspapers appeared. Newspaper competition greatly intensified when it lapsed again in 1695 and many new successful and long-lasting titles began publishing.
“Where the earlier newsbooks had been weekly, and the London Gazette appeared twice a week, these morning posts were published three times a week – reflecting the public appetite for news and comment. Among them were the Post Boy (1695-1728) and the Post Man (1695-1730),” according to an Early History of the English Newspaper (Gale).
London was indeed the capital of news publishing during the 17th century, but most of the early English newspapers and their newsbook predecessors made their way to the English countryside and surrounding countries via post riders or private carriers. First published in 1699, and often stopping and starting with several different titles, the Edinburgh Gazette was the first native-printed Scottish paper, 400 miles north of London, published by James Donaldson. "Donaldson’s evident dependence on the London papers was perfectly natural as was his need for speed to compete with the London papers that came in the mail for sale in Edinburgh,” according to The English Atlantic (Steele, 1986). This 1711 issue of the Edinburgh Gazette, now titled the Evening Post or the New Edinburgh Gazette, is evidence that the newspaper was published later in the day, likely in order to wait for the post to arrive with news from London that could be recycled.
The Daily Courant appeared on March 11, 1702, and holds the historical designation of first daily newspaper, or at least the first London daily and certainly the first to use daily in its title. Some historians point to the Norwich Post as the first daily, having launched in 1701. However, even the British Library labels the Daily Courant as the first daily paper in its Concise History of the British Newspaper. When the Daily Courant was published, its fiercest competition didn't come from other newspapers; rather, it came from printed sermons by local preachers. Call it the press vs. the pulpit, as a logical continuation of the struggle to determine the best source of information between church and state.
The 18th century, commonly referred to as the Age of Enlightenment, saw the emergence of even more serial publications. Writing under the pseudonym "Isaac Bickerstaff," the first consistent journalistic persona, Richard Steele and Joseph Addison published the Tatler three times a week. The Tatler, which featured essays, theatre criticism and, as the title and introductory paragraph of the issue shown above suggests, leisurely gossip overheard in London coffeehouses.
After the Tory government shut down the Tatler, Addison and Steele soon joined forces again and published a daily newspaper, titled the Spectator, that promised to report more news than commentary and to maintain "an exact neutraility between the Whigs and Tories." In August, 1712, the first newspaper tax was imposed, an attempt by English government to suppress the booming print media industry and eliminate small papers that were most vocal in opposition of the government -- a less direct form of censorship. This uniquely untrimmed October 14, 1712, issue of the Spectator was among the first newspapers to feature the red tax stamp.
By the mid-1700s in England, newspapers were being printed smaller and with eight pages instead of the typical two or four. The first such title was the London Chronicle (1757-1765) like issue No. 2 from January 1 to 4, 1757, shown above.
On the morning of April 24, 1704, in a small wooden building on Newbury Street in Boston, Bartholomew Green made history. Green, from one of the first families of printing in Colonial America, printed the
Boston News-Letter, the first successful American newspaper. The
Boston News-Letter was first published and edited by John Campbell, Boston postmaster and a bookseller, who had distributed a handwritten letter of news since 1700. While the aptly named
Boston News-Letter was admired for its printing quality and typography (also notice the similarities to the popular
London Gazette), its foreign-focused editorial has been called poor, dull and unimpressive. Pre-1720 circulations of the
News-Letter seldom, if ever, exceeded 300. The issue presented above is dated October 1 to October 8, 1716, and includes an extensive back-page report on the arrival of Samuel Shute, the new Royal Governor of Massachusetts Bay Colony. John Campbell continued to publish the
Boston News-Letter until 1722 and concentrated his journalism on foreign news, which resulted in a substantial time lag. [
Read about Publick Occurrences, Benjamin Harris' failed attempt to launch America's first newspaper, under the article for Domestick Intelligence, which was Harris' successful newspaper in London.]
News from England took as long as eight weeks to reach Boston by ship "and a few more weeks or months made little difference, to Campbell's mind, so long as important events were recorded in due order. In short, Campbell thought of news as recent history," according to American Journalism (Mott, 1949). Unfortunately, Campbell fell further and further behind in his reporting until he was more than a year behind. In one of his first issues of 1719, Campbell wrote "After near upon Fourteen Years experience, The Undertaker knows that it's Impossible with half a Sheet in the Week to carry on all the Public News of Europe... He now intends to make up that Deficiency by Printing a Sheet [i.e., four pages] every other Week, for Trial, by which in a little time, all will become New that us'd formerly to seem Old." A winter with no English ships bringing London newspapers to Boston delayed Campbell's plan until the following spring when Campbell wrote in the May 18 to May 25 four-page issue (shown above) "By printing every other Week a Sheet and this Month Weekly a Sheet, we have given you not only the Remarkable Occurrences of Great Britain and Ireland to the 4th of March last; but also all those of Europe beyond Great Britain to the first of October." According to Mott, this was "as well as Campbell ever was able to do with his 'foreign' or Continental reports."
The Boston News-Letter remained the only newspaper in the colonies for 15 years until another Boston newspaper, the Boston Gazette, began publishing in December 1719. Coincidentally, one day after the Boston Gazette first published, Andrew Bradford, song of one of America's famous first printers William Bradford, began publishing American Weekly Mercury in Philadelphia. The American Weekly Mercury was the first newspaper published outside of Boston and holds the title of first newspaper printed in the middle colonies. As the title suggests, the American Weekly Mercury was intended, unlike its Boston counterparts, for a much larger audience. Bradford "worked out a three-tiered subscription rate depending on the distance from Philadelphia: ten shillings a year for subscribers in his own province, fifteen shillings for New Jersey, New York and Maryland, and twenty shillings for Virginia, Rhode Island, and Boston," according to The Public Prints (Clark, 1994). Similar to the Boston News-Letter, the American Weekly Mercury gave editorial priority to foreign news as demonstrated in the April 11 to 18, 1737, issue shown above. According to Clark, the Mercury's monopoly ended with the establishment of his father's New-York Gazette late in 1725. New York was also home to a critical event in American journalism history.
Arguably the most significant and dramatic event of all American journalism history surrounded the owner of the New-York Weekly Journal, John Peter Zenger. After publishing a reader's letter that was critical of New York Governor William Cosby, Zenger was arrested for seditious libel. "Zenger continued to oversee publication of the New-York Weekly Journal, his editor's office now a jail cell, until his trial began nine months later," according to Infamous Scribblers (Burns, 2006). The trial was unique in that it was the first time in American history in which the lawyer, unable to defend his client's innocence, argued the error of the law and insisted that truth was a valid defense against libel. The jury, finding that all printed statements were based on fact, unanimously returned a verdict of not guilty. "The John Peter Zenger trial was a landmark in the history of American journalism, the first significant court decision in its behalf... The verdict also was the first substantial piece of evidence that the colonies had recourse against those actionsof the Crown it found unjust... After the Zenger trial, independence was in the air," according to Burns.
In the 1740s, about a dozen newspapers were being published in the colonies with Boston, Philadelphia and New York having more than one. Annapolis (Maryland), Charleston (South Carolina) and Williamsburg (Virginia) each had one. The Pennsylvania Gazette, published by Benjamin Franklin, is considered one of the finest specimans of colonial newspapers. Benjamin Franklin began publishing the Pennsylvania Gazette in October 1729, which was launched a year earlier by Samuel Keimer. "Like most other newspapers of the time, Franklin's Pennsylvania Gazette was filled not only with short news items and reports on public events, but also with amusing essays and letters from readers. What made his paper a delight was its wealth of this type of correspondence, much of it written under pseudonyms by Franklin himself," according to the biography Benjamin Franklin (Isaacson, 2003). The December 6, 1745, issue shown above was published during King George's War, the third of the four French and Indian Wars and an extension of the War of the Austrian Succession. According to Isaacson, in 1746, 16-year-old William Franklin "marched off toward Canada to fight the French and Indians on behalf of the British.
In the 1740s, newspaper circulations still averaged only a few hundred subscribers. The Maryland Gazette was originally established in September 1727 and published by William Parks until 1734. The title was revived on January 17, 1745, by Jonas Green, the great-great-great grandson of Bartholomew Green, who printed the Boston News-Letter. The March 17, 1747, issue of the Maryland Gazette (shown above) contains reports of King George's War, an extension of the War of the Austrian Succession.
In 1748, at age 42, Benjamin Franklin retired from printing the Pennsylvania Gazette and turned over the business to his foreman, David Hall. "The detailed partnership deal Franklin drew up would leave him rich enough by most people's standards: it provided him with half of the shop's profits for the next eighteen years (through 1766), which would amount to about 650 United Kingdom Pounds annually," according to Benjamin Fraklin (Isaacson, 2003). So, in 1748, the imprint on the back page of Franklin's Gazette added David Hall and now read "PHILADELPHIA: Printed by B. FRANKLIN, Post-Master, and D. HALL, at the New-Printing-Office, near the Market."
By the 1750s, improvements in the post service helped stimulate newspaper subscriptions and, for the first time, some newspapers realized circulations north of one thousand. Unfortunately, not all subscribers paid. According to Isaacson's biography of Benjamin Franklin, James Parker, the printer of the New York Gazette, reported in 1759 that at least a quarter of his subscribers failed to pay. The April 7, 1755, issue of the New York Gazette (shown above) features a proclamation inviting American colonists to enlist and fight in the French and Indian War -- "for the Service and Defence [sic] of his Majesty's Colonies in North-America."
