NEWSPAPER, a printed paper pub lished at intervals of hours, days, or weeks, containing intelligence of past, current, or coming events; and at the option of the conductors presenting also expressions of opinion by editorial and other contributors and the business an nouncements of advertisers. The proto types of the newspaper are supposed to be the journals called "Acta Diurna," which were the bulletins sent from Rome, several centuries before the Christian era, in which accounts were given of the progress of the imperial arms. These journals were communicated by the generals who received them to the officers under their command, and thus their con tents became known throughout the army. The "Acta Diurna" seem, how ever, to have recorded other than mili tary matters, e. g., trials, punishments, deaths, sacrifices, prodigies. The i Pek ing "Gazette," the oldest daily n the world, was first issued about A. D. 1350. This is still in existence, and is an offi cial journal, forming a pamphlet of 20 to 40 pages of coarse paper. The "Notizie Scritte," published monthly in Venice, in 1562, is said to have been the first Italian newspaper; but it was in manuscript, not printed. Its price was a small coin called gazetta; hence the word gazette. The first numbered sheets appeared in 1612. In the British Mu seum there are seven copies of the "Eng lish Mercuric" of 1688, but their authen ticity is questioned. A publication en titled the "Relations" was published in England as early as 1462, and in 1527 there was one called "New Tidings," but neither of these presented more than a single piece of intelligence. The earliest English newspaper in the true sense of the word was Butter's "Weekly News," of 1622. Butter's success led to many imitations, and newspapers, such as they were, soon became common. The publi cation of newspapers without license was prohibited in the reign of Charles II., and an office was created called Licenser of the Press. Advertisements first ap peared in English newspapers in 1652. "The Public Intelligencer" appeared in 1663, and "The London Gazette" in 1665. The first daily newspaper was the "Daily Courant," of London, the date of whose first issue was 1702; there is, however, a legend of a daily paper called the "Postboy," in 1695. Cologne seems to have had a newspaper as early as 1499, called the "Chronicle," and Frank fort claims as the father of journalism Egenolf Emmel, who, in 1615, is believed to have established a daily paper entitled "Die Frankfurter Oberpostamt Zeitung."
France's first newspaper, the "Gazette de France," appeared May 30, 1631, Sweden's in 1644, Holland's in 1656, Russia's in 1703, Spain's in 1704, Tur key's in -1795 (printed in French). The first newspaper on the American side of the Atlantic, "Publick Occurrences both Foreign and Domestick," was a monthly, first issued in Boston, Mass., by Richard Pearce, Sept. 25, 1690; in 1702 appeared "The Boston Newsletter," and in 1729 Benjamin Franklin's "Pennsylvania Ga zette." The development of the newspaper has kept pace with industrial and social de velopments in the United States. Prac tically every city with a population of 5,000 or over has one or more daily papers. A gradual change, however, has taken place in the relative importance of the editorial and the news sections of newspapers. In the days of Greeley, Dana, Bennett, Raymond, and other great editors, the editorial page had great influence in molding popular opin ion. In the latter days, however, the tendency has been to subordinate the editorial features of the paper to the news section, so that it is probable that the influence of editorial writing as a molder of popular opinion has waned.
Newspapers in the larger cities have obtained enormous circulation, in some cases exceeding 500,000. This has been rendered possible by the use of wood pulp in making paper. On the other hand it has also resulted in a shortage of wood pulp and a corresponding short age of print paper. This became par ticularly acute during the war, when newspapers were hard pressed to obtain paper enough for their use. A large portion of the pulp from which the paper is made is obtained from Canada.
Partly as a result of this situation and partly from other reasons, a tendency has developed for the consolidation of papers in the larger cities. The most notable instance of this was the consoli dation of the New York "Herald" and the New York "Sun" in 1920, following the death of James Gordon Bennett, the former proprietor of the "Herald." The "Herald" was purchased by Frank A. Munsey, who was also the owner of the "Sun." Mr. Munsey also) purchased in November, 1920, the "Baltimore Ameri can," one of the oldest of American newspapers.