A Tradition in Print

Newspapers shaped history – and still do

7:10 a.m. Sept. 25, 2025

Though no physical copies survive today, historians widely believe the first newspaper appeared in 59 BCE, published by the Romans under the title Acta Diurna, or “Daily Doings.” Covering everything that’s happened in journalism since then would take volumes. Instead, let’s focus on the evolution of the idea that shaped this very publication – the American paper.

On Sept. 25, 1690 – about 50 years before George Washington’s birth and 86 years before the signing of the Declaration of Independence – Publick Occurrences Both Forreign and Domestick was published in Boston. Quite a mouthful, yes. Today, we simply remember it as the first American newspaper, though its run was short-lived. Authorities shut it down after a single issue because of its political commentary.

Fourteen years later came a more successful attempt: The Boston News-Letter. Its success spurred the creation of other publications, including The Boston Gazette and American Weekly Mercury. Politics largely stayed out of these papers until 1721, when James Franklin stirred controversy in the New England Courant by publishing criticisms of smallpox vaccines.

For decades, newspapers remained out of reach for most people. Printing was expensive, and technology limited circulation. That changed in 1833 with the birth of the penny press.

The Sun sold papers for just one cent (far cheaper than the typical six cents) and focused on working- and lower-class readers. By 1835, it was selling 15,000 copies a day – a revolution in mass communication.

Another breakthrough came nearly a century later: the telegraph. Beginning in 1846, five major New York newspapers banded together to form the Associated Press (AP), pooling resources to afford telegraphic news updates. This collaboration created wire services linking major cities, vastly expanding both the speed and scope of reporting.

As the 19th century gave way to the 20th, sensationalism returned in force. Joseph Pulitzer – yes, the Pulitzer of prize fame – popularized yellow journalism through his paper, the New York World. It ran emotionally charged stories of crime, violence, and scandal that hooked readers and paved the way for the tabloid style still familiar today.

By the 1900s, newspapers resembled what we know now: daily fixtures breaking some of history’s biggest stories. Headlines became shorthand for history itself. Think: “Kennedy Assassinated; Johnson Sworn as President” in 1963, “Men Walk on Moon” in 1969, or the famously wrong “Dewey Defeats Truman” in 1948. Perhaps most iconic were the single-word headlines, “Victory,” celebrating the end of World War II in 1945.

But the same century that elevated newspapers also saw their decline. Television, then the internet, pulled readers away. Between 1984 and 1993, circulation slipped with the rise of home internet and continued to drop into the 2000s. Today, social media and digital platforms dominate, making physical newspapers a rarity in the digital age.

And yet – that’s why we’re here.

In the 335 years since Publick Occurrences Both Forreign and Domestick first appeared, newspapers have grown, adapted, and shaped history through both their reporting and their existence. In 2025, some claim print news is a dying art form.

The Moore County Observer is here to prove them wrong.