The earliest form of newspaper may have been in the time of
the Roman Empire. News of the government was pasted in a series of public
announcements called the Acts During which means 'Acts of the day'. Letters
were spread between merchants and then copied by scribes and sent to clients.
In China , as early as the seventh century a similar system existed
but only reached a small part of the population. After the invention of printing pamphlets and
single sheets of paper
were appearing announcing specific events. The first was a German publication,
Avows R elation order Zeitvng in 1609.
Between 1609 and 1629 newspapers were being published in Cologne, Frankfurt, Berlin,
and Hamburg, Germany. They were also published in Basil , Switzerland , Vienna,
Amsterdam,and an twerp, Belgium.
Newspapers started in London, England in 1621 and in Paris in
1931. In 1645 Stockholm , Sweden had a court paper which is still published.
However , what is now considered to be the fist English paper was founde
in 1622 called the weekly news.
The first attempt to publish a newspaper in America was by Ben -
jamin Harris in 1690. His public Occurrence Both Foreign and Domestic was
unlicensed and stopped by the governor of Massachusetts after the first issue.
No one tried to published a newspaper until John Campbell in 1704. ( The Boston
News - letter ). Then the new England Coronet k began in Boston in 1721
by James Franklin. The first American newspaper out-side Boston was the American Weekly
Mercury by Andrew Bradford in Philadelphia in 1719.
There were 12 newspapers published in the American colonies
in 1750. In 1775 there were 48. The newspapers were 4 pages and published
weekly. In 1776 the patriot papers had the Declaration of Independence on
the front page.
SOURCES
Newspapers' Microsoft Encarta 97 Encyclopedia.1993 - 1996 Microsoft Corporation.
The World Almanac and Book of Facts 1995 Funk and Wagnalls Corporation 1994.
The New Book of Knowledge Vol. 13. Growler Incorporated 1984.