THE FIRST NEWSPAPER

Which was the first newspaper published in the world? It is very difficult to point out a single newspaper as the first one. During the Maurya period, kings used to circulate news to the people as proclamations. In ancient Rome, Acta Diurna, or government announcements, were published regularly. They were inscribed in metal or stone. These can be considered as the earliest form of newspapers. In China also, the government produced such news sheets called tipao.

Many researchers consider “The Peking Gazette”, published from China, as the first newspaper. It was started in 618 .In the initial stages, this newspaper was hand written and distributed to the readers. Later it was printed and circulated. The Peking Gazette continued its publication till the beginning of the twentieth century. Newsletters circulated by rulers were the first form of newspapers. In India, the East India Company circulated such newsletters.

According to the World Association of Newspapers, the first newspaper in the modern sense was published by Johann Carlous in 1605. The name of the paper is a bit long! “ Relation aller Furnemmen und gedenckwandigen

Historien”. In 1609, another newspaper was started from Germany called “ “File”. Yet another newspaper in the modern concept was published from Venice called “ The Gazette”.

But many such earlier newspapers could not survive for long. The rulers were not happy with these publications as some of them started criticizing their rule. So many papers were forced to close down. In USA, a newspaper “ The Public Occurances” lasted only for a day. Similar was the fate of the “Daily Paper” started by James Asher in UK.

Newspapers underwent a lot of changes in their form and content after that. In England , “The Weekly News” was launched in 1622. The first newspaper in the modern concept was published in Oxford in 1655 .It was the “Oxford Gazette”. The first newspaper to be published from London was the Daily Courant. It was edited by E. Mallet. In 1784, John Walter launched the “Daily Universal Register” from London which later adopted a new name “ The Times”. It is known to be one of the greatest newspapers in the world.

In USA, the first newspaper was “Public Occurances”, which was launched in 1690. Postmaster John Campbell started another paper in 1704, “The Boston Newsletter”. In 1783, “Pensilvania Evening Post” was started in USA that had all the features and content of a modern newspaper. Later in 1851 came “The New York Times”.

Do you know which is the largest circulated newspaper in the world ? In which country is it published? The largest circulated newspaper is the “Yomi

Yuri Shimbun” published from Japan. It has a circulation of 1, 45, 57, 000 copies per day. The second and third largest circulated dailies in the world are also published from Japan.