The first newspaper appeared as early as 59 BC, when Julius Caesar ordered the publication of a handwritten report detailing the Roman Senate’s proceedings. It had been not until the late 15th century, however, when the printing press was invented, that journalism got into its stride.

The very first printed news sheet appeared in Venice in 1563. It had been a easy thing, reporting only on the war which Venice was then waging against Turkey. Even so, it had been well-liked and Venetians paid to hear its contents study aloud. The coin they paid – a gazeta – eventually gave its name towards the sheets themselves: gazettes. By the following century, newspapers had been an established part of life. The first everyday came out within the German city of Leipzig in 1650, though it was to be another 52 years prior to England got its own, the Daily Courant. But events such as the English Civil War of 1642-45, in which each sides pumped out endless streams of propaganda, increased the demand for reliable news. Crowds would gather at inns and coffee-houses, where the sheets had been hired out to clients or, as in Venice, study aloud towards the illiterate.

Governments were less enthusiastic, seeing the new medium like a threat to their authority and control. As early as 1542, England’s Privy Council was prosecuting individuals for ‘unsemely worddes’ and ‘evil opinions’. It was even against the law to report the debates of Parliament – a ban that was to remain unti I the late 18th century.

As newspapers proliferated so did attempts to discourage or control them. Under both Oliver Cromwell and Charles II, owners needed a licence to print their papers. Licensing was abolished in 1692, but a few years later a Stamp Act was passed, requiring owners to pay a tax of one penny per sheet printed plus one shilling for each and every advertisement inserted. In 1792, a Libel Act made the job of the newspapers even harder. Each pieces of legislation were amended numerous times in an effort to eradicate the free press, but editors dodged or defied the rules, even at the risk of going to jail. The tax on advertisements was finally abolished in 1853, and also the tax on the papers themselves in 1854. As a result, a torrent of new papers poured on towards the market.

By now there had been major advances within the way newspapers had been printed. In 1811, the first steam powered press was invented, to be followed in 1846 by the rotary press. This was so-called simply because the kind was set on to big metal cylinders which were rolled over the sheets of paper. In 1865, the rotary press was further improved by using one single roll of paper, known as a web, which fed the press continuously.