The Norfolk weekly news-journal., 1909-12-03
DAILY 200 YEARS OLD.
$4,000 Papers and Periodicals Now in
United States and Canada.

United States and Canada.
New York Nov. 27.-Two hundred
years ago the good people of London
awoke to find themselves the possess
ors of what no people ever before had
possessed-a daily newspaper. "The
Daily Courant" was a tiny single-sheet
publication appearing six times a
week. Like all it's successors, living
and dead, it was intended to supply a
"long-felt want"
The particular demand existing at
that time was the desire of the people
of London to obtain news of the cam
paigns being waged on the continent
by the Duke of Marlborough, for in
the good year 1909 Europe was bleed
ing in the war of the Spanish success
sion. The history of daily newspapers
from that day until this is the history
of the world, but there is a particular
trade history which is of interest even
to those not engaged in journalism.
The United States and Canada now
of the world has about as many There
are $4,000 newspapers and other Pc
riodicals in the world, $4,000 of which
are published in the United States and
Canada. More than half of all the
periodicals in the world appear in the
English language.
The development of modern journal
ism has been the peculiar mission of
the English and American nations. It
is fitting, therefore, that London
should have the honor of being the
birthplace of the daily newspaper, and
that it should now be the home of the
most powerful of all daily journals;
while the United States surpasses all
other countries in the versatility,
scope and prosperity of it's press.
The newspaper, however, is an TIA
liam invention. Leaving aside the Chi
nese antiquities and reckoning only
the western world, the first newspaper
editor was julius Caesar. The great
Roman did not possess the facilities
of the twentieth century, but he had
the dead walls of Rome to display bull
letins of the news-news carefully col
ored to suit the political desires of j.
Caesar.
If this early effort at publicity be
barred, still the Italians have the claim
to the first newspaper. In the latter
part of the sixteenth century the first
regular publication of bulletin con
tanning information for the public was
undertaken in Venice.
These bulletins were not printed, but
were written on large sheets and dis
played in public room. They were
called "gazetta," from which comes
the English newspaper title Gazette"
The popular clamor for news of the
war between the Venetians and the
Turks was the ''long-felt want" sup
piled by the appearance of these ga
zetta." The files of sixty years of its
issues are preserved in a museum in
Florence.
The first printed paper was the Eng
fish Mercurie, a religious publication
which appeared in London in 1888.
The earliest real newspaper was the
London Weekly News. born in 1919.
For ninety years the London press led
varied existence, more than 300
newspapers being started only to per-
ish in early failure. But in the fullness
of time several weeklies were firmly
established, and there were seven
thrice-a-week journals in England
when The Daily Courant made its bow
to the public in the autumn of 1908.
The fist newspaper venture in
America was a tragic failure. Mr.,
Richard Pierce of Boston, in $780, be-
gan the publication of "Publick Occur
rences." He declared in his salutatory
| that there were too many unfounded
and baseless rumors floating about
Boston and that the mission of his
paper was to record them, and then
trace them to their source.
Mr.. Pierce appears to be entitled to
the honor of being the first journalist
ic muck-raker. But those were cruel
times and the legislature suppressed
the sheet after its first issue, solemnly
declaring it to be "a pamphlet which
came out contrary to law, and con-
tanned reflections of a very high ma
/ tura -