Newspapers have been in existence since the first pamphlets and broadsides appeared in Germany in the late 1400s.  The Weekley Newes, the first English-language newspaper, began publication in 1622.  The London Gazette, the first publication that we would recognize as a true modern newspaper, began publication in 1666.  Newspapers began cropping up in the New World just as soon as the colonists could gain a foothold.  They were a major force in influencing public opinion and gaining the United States full political independence from England. 

According to Advertising Age,¹ the first advertisement in a newspaper appeared in 1704 in the Boston News-Letter.  This set the business model for newspapers and magazines that has endured for more than 300 years. 

In 1791, the Bill of Rights guaranteed freedom of the press, and by 1814, there were 346 American newspapers.  While newspapers were previously available only to the affluent, advances in printing technology in the 1830s made it possible to sell a newspaper at a profit for just a penny a copy.  By 1880, there were more than 11,000 newspapers being printed in the United States, and by the 1890s some of them had more than a million readers.  Newspapers were a powerful force in social life and government, and were they were largely responsible for the rise in literacy in America.

The late 1800s marked the period in which newspapers became so powerful that William Randolph Hearst could boast that he started the Spanish-American War in 1898 by printing stories that influenced public opinion.  That era also marked a grand consolidation in the industry, as countless small newspapers were bought up or run out of business by the powerful media giants of the day.  This led to an inevitable homogenization of viewpoints, as the largest newspapers dictated the agenda for national discussions. 

In the 20^th century, however, radio and television rose to challenge that hegemony, and accelerating technological advances have been undermining print media ever since.  With the advent of the Internet in the 1990s, newspapers rushed into online enterprises just like everyone else.  Yet, to date, newspaper publishers have not been able to figure out an Internet...