Evolution of Newspapers

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Evolution of Newspapers
Introduction
A newspaper is a regular publication containing news of current affairs, diverse features, informative articles and advertising. It is normally printed on low grade, relatively inexpensive paper such as newsprint. This paper will seek to analyze the evolution of newspaper from the start to the present time.
The history of newspaper takes us five centuries ago in Europe; there were merchants who would distribute newsletters which were handwritten comprising information regarding wars, economic condition and human interest stories. While this was the first form known of distributing written information, this was credited with the creation of the first newspaper in Germany in the late 1400’s. In the fifteenth century, a cross between a pamphlet and a cross was distributed among the people; the message contained extremely sensationalized stories along with description of the current news (Barber Para2).
However, in America, the first newspaper appeared in Boston in 1690, entitled “Publick Occurrences”. The newspaper was published without authority and it was immediately suppressed and its publisher arrested and all the copies they had were destroyed. It was forgotten until 1845 when the only known existing example was found in the British Library. “Boston News-Letter” was the first successful newspaper, which was started by postmaster John Campbell in 1704.
Main body
Newspaper growth maintained unabated in the postwar years. An impressive 11,314 different papers were indicated in the 1880 census. In the 1890’s the first circulation figures of a million prints per issue were recorded, at this period it appeared in the aspects of the modern newspaper which was bold banner headlines, expanded coverage of organized sporting events, extensive use of illustrations and funny pages. This also marked the “yellow journalism” era.
In 1898, Hearst could boast because his newspaper manufactured the “public clamor for war on Spain”. This was also the age of media consolidation, as numerous independent newspapers were enclosed into powerful chains, with unfortunate consequences for an incorruptible and fearless press. Many were contracted to vehicles for the distribution of specific views of their owners, and so was competing papers without challenging their viewpoints (Barber Para4).
In the year 1910’s to 1920’s all the important features of the recognizable modern newspaper had emerged. For the first time, publishers of the news papers were forced to re-evaluate their role as primary information sources. In the year 1935-36, introduction of television came along as news medium took off in the 1950s. More channels and information media was introduced in 1970 and resulted to fragmentation of audiences into smaller sections. Until lately this media development was accompanied by a stable increase in print advertising revenues.
In the 1980 countries observed significant ownership changes of newspapers, i.e. media conglomerate or big entities incorporating newspaper and the subsequent move away from single newspaper ownership. Entities owning newspaper in the United States were progressively listed on the stock exchange, fundamentally altering priorities, financial expectations and newspaper management due to a larger focus on profitability.
Those who wrote regarding the developments of the press express that despite the length of the newspaper history; it was relatively new that independent press, non-partisan coupled with investigative journalism were commonly the order of the day (Stephens Para 4).
In 1980s newspaper initialized a new way to publicize news via teletext/videotext. However, without much commercial success, in 1990s newspaper introduced services new such fax, CD-ROM, digital assistants and bulletin-boards. In 1999, Japan “the Yomiuri Shimbun” released the first CD-ROM which supported searchable archives of news images and articles from a certain period that had been digitalized from microfilm.
In 1995 in Stockholm, Metro international began with one free daily newspaper. The trend to free papers effectivel...