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The Birth of Newspapers
The year 2009 is generally considered the 400th anniversary of the first newspaper in print. But recently the World Association of Newspapers accepted evidence produced by a leading printing museum that 2005 marked the 400th anniversary – and newspapers were eager to celebrate the fact.
The year 1609 is the date of the first preserved editions of printed journals.
The Gutenberg Museum in Mainz, Germany, which houses the world's first
printing press, told WAN that the 'birth certificate' of the newspaper,
'Relation', was unearthed in the town archives of Strasbourg, now in France
but at the time a part of the so-called 'Deutsches Reich'.
"The evidence is compelling and I think we can all say Happy - 400th -
Birthday this year to the print newspaper!", said Timothy Balding, the WAN
Director General. "Our Executive Committee has examined all the facts and
has been persuaded that the story stands up".
Martin Welke, founder of the German Newspaper Museum, who is also the
'father' of the discovery together with Professor Jean Pierre Kintz, a
Strasbourg historian, told WAN that the publisher of 'Relation' was a
certain Johann Carolus, who earned his living at the turn of the 17th
century by producing hand-written newsletters, sold to rich subscribers at
very high prices, reproducing news sent to him by a network of paid
correspondents.
"In 1604, he bought a complete printing shop from the widow of a famous
printer," said Dr Welke. "In the summer of 1605 he switched to printing his
... newspapers, because it took him 'too much time copying by hand'".
Carolus also calculated that he could earn a lot more money "by printing a
higher circulation for a lower price".
(People were pretty smart in those days. Today, chasing circulation, newspapers print more and more copies at below cost.)
In October that year, Carolus wrote a petition to the Strasbourg city
council asking for "protection against reprints by other printers". And the
rest is history...
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