Every morning, without fail, the newspaper arrives at your home. But 400 years ago, there were no newspapers at all. During the Middle
Ages in Europe, handwritten newsletters were circulated privately among merchants, passing along information about everything from wars and economic conditions to social customs and human interest The first printed forerunners of the newspaper appeared in Germany in the late 1400’s in the form of news pamphlets or broadsides. They often had highly sensational content. It was between 1605 and 1610 that publications with topical information began appearing on a fairly regular basis. These publications appeared first in Europe, and were the first true newspapers. In the English – speaking world, the earliest predecessors of the newspaper were ‘corantos’, small news pamphlets produced only when some event worthy of notice occurred. The first successively published title was ‘The Weekly News’ of 1622.
