History in Journalism

Earliest Forms of American Media

According to Frank Luther Mott, newspapers appeared in America as early as 1690. The first American newspaper was titled Publick Occurrences. Its creator was a man named Ben Harris. The Publick Occurrences was a three-page paper, measuring 6x9 ½ inches, with the fourth page blank, undoubtedly so that items could be added by hand if a Bostonian wished to forward the newspaper on to distant friend. However, the first continually published newspaper was The Boston News-Letters and its creator was John Campbell, a Scotchman. Campbell was a small businessman and a book seller. This newspaper was printed on a "half sheet" and was slightly larger than the Publick Occurrences. It was printed on both sides of the paper and was issued weekly. It had features and news and was not unlike the London Gazette. A new paper was started in Boston in 1719, after Campbell refused to hand his paper over to a new postmaster. The new paper was called the Boston Gazette; its creator was William Booker. By 1735 there were five newspapers in Boston. This caused a merging of newspapers in 1741 and for 25 years after, Boston was a four newspaper town (9-22).

By 1765 the majority of papers in the larger towns were being printed on four pages, each measuring about 11x17 or 10x15 inches. On occasion, some papers would print six or eight pages to accommodate the large advertising sponsorship (Mott 43). Although in the earliest papers there was little advertisement, by the middle of the eighteenth century, the more successful printers could print three to five pages of advertisements in one issue. These advertisements were usually single column width, with very little display. A page of advertisements in eighteenth century America looked a lot like a classified section in today's newspaper (Mott 55-56).