History of newspapers and magazines

Early news publications

Before the advent of the newspaper, there were two major kinds of periodical news publications: the handwritten news sheet, and single item news publications. These existed simultaneously. The Roman Empire published Actas around 59 BC. Early publications played into the development of what would today be recognized as the newspaper, which came about around 1600. This was a time in which, in order to be successful, publishers had to be up to date on news. Around the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, in England and France, long news accounts called "relations" were published, in Spain they were called "relaciones."

Single event news publications were printed in the broadsheet format, which was often posted. These publications also appeared as pamphlets and small booklets (for longer narratives, often written in a letter format), often containing woodcut illustrations. Literacy rates were low in comparison today, and these news publications were often read aloud (literacy and oral culture were, in a sense, existing side by side in this scenario).

Content

News was frequently highly selective: rulers would often use them as ways to publish accounts of battles or events that made those rulers look good to the public. Sensationalist material was also printed, such as accounts of magic or of natural disasters; this material did not pose a threat to the state, because it did not pose criticism of the state. Printers readily printed sensationalist material, because they faced a ready market, which proved lucrative for them. Material was selective, as stated above, however printers found that there was a market for news about rulers that did not cast those rulers in a favorable light, and printed this material. Printers could get away with doing so, because they would print the publication overnight, and sell it quickly. This quick publication pace also resulted in quick returns on investments for printers.

Private uses of early news publications: rulers and merchants both established networks of people who were employed to provide them news from other lands, and here is an early manifestation of correspondence in news writing. Rulers found out political information from these networks, and merchants found out business information, and also political information that directly affected their trade.

Sixteenth century

One example of this type of merchant was the sixteenth century German financialist, Fugger. He not only received business news from his correspondents, but also sensationalist and gossip news as well. It is evident in the correspondence of Fugger with his network that fiction and fact were both significant parts of early news publications.

Sixteenth century Germany also saw subscription-based, handwritten news. Those who subscribed to these publications were generally low-level government officials and also merchants. They could not afford other types of news publications, but had enough money to pay for a subscription, which was still expensive for the time.

Avisis, or Gazzettes (not gazettes), were a mid-sixteenth century Venice phenomenon. They were issued on single sheets, folded to form four pages, and issued on a weekly schedule. These publications reached a larger audience than handwritten news had in early Rome. Their format and appearance at regular intervals were two major influences on the newspaper as we know it today. The idea of a weekly, handwritten newssheet went from Italy to Germany, and then to Holland.

Newspapers

The term newspaper became common in the seventeenth century, however in Germany, publications that we would today consider to be newspaper publications, were appearing as early as the sixteenth century. They were discernibly newspapers for the following reasons: they were printed, dated, appeared at regular and frequent publication intervals, and included a variety of news items (unlike single item news mentioned above). The first newspaper however was said to be the Strasbourg Relation, in the early seventeenth century. German newspapers, like avisis, were organized by the location from which they came, and by date. They differed from avisis in the following manners: they employed a distinct and highly illustrated title page, and they applied an overall date to each issue.

Corantos

Newspaper publications, under the name of corantos, came to the Dutch Republic in the seventeenth century, first to Amsterdam, which was a centre of trade and travelers, an obvious locale for news publication. The term coranto was adopted by other countries for a time as well. The coranto differed from the German newspapers before it in format. The coranto dropped the highly-illustrated German title page, instead including a title on the upper first page of the publication – the masthead common in today's periodicals. Corantos also adopted a two-column format, unlike the previous single-column format, and were issued on halfsheets.

US newspaper

The first US newspaper was entitled Public Occurrences, and came out in 1690. It only printed one issue however, as it was shut down by colonial officials, possibly due to censorship and control issues. It followed the two column format, and was a single sheet, printed on both sides.

British newspaper

The coranto form went on to prove influential in London, and in 1660, The London Gazette (first called The Oxford Gazette) began publication. It is considered to be the newspaper that decisively changed the look of English news printing, echoing the coranto format of two columns, a clear title, and a clear date. It was issued on a biweekly basis. Other English papers began issuance on a triweekly basis, and eventually dailies began, partially because of a change in the postal system between Dover and London.

In the eighteenth century, British newspapers were issued on a biweekly and triweekly basis. Newspapers in general included short articles, ephemeral topics, some illustrations, service articles (classifieds), dates, they were printed, were unbound, were often written by multiple authors (although the authors' identities were often obscured), they began to contain some advertisements, and they did not yet include sections. Mass market papers emerged, including Sunday papers for workers to read in their leisure time. The Times adopted new technologies, and set the standards for other newspapers. This newspaper covered major wars, among other major events.

English Newspapers in Indo.& Pak. Subcontinent

A British man William Bolts in 1766 offered his country fellows in Calcutta to help them for establishing printing press because there was no press before He was against the East India Company's Government so after two years he was send to England back by Company. He published a book of 400 to 500 pages which was full with facts about corruption of East India Company and hardships of Indian people due to corruption.

After that in 1780 a man James Augustus Hickey published a newspaper with the name of Bengal Gazette/General Calcutta Adviser. Size of that paper was 12"x8" only with 4 pages. Hickey was against the Government, he published internal news of the employee of company. so sooner Government snatched the facility of post for that paper as a consequence of news against them. Then he appointed 20 man for delivering that papers. Once he published a news against the chief Missionary of Main church Jan Zakriya. Jan complained to Government for that faked news. He also suited a defamation petition against Hickey. So Hickey was fined 500 Rupees and 4 months of jail. After that he was fined again which result into the end of that paper so we can say that it was the first ever printed English newspaper of subcontinent. In November 1781 a news paper with name of “India Gazette” was also introduced which was pro Government and against the Hickey.

Newspaper of that time was in English language and they used to publish news only related to British and the reader was also British men so local opulation was not the target of newspaper of that era. Company was feared to reach those papers to England which would cause defamation of company in England. Newspaper of England had reached to India after 9 months or more.