ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

History of newspaper publishing

Okay kiddo, let me tell you about the history of newspaper publishing. A long, long time ago, before you were even born, people used to write news stories and share them with their friends and neighbors. But as communities got bigger, people needed a way to share news with more people. So they started making hand-written copies of news stories and passing them around.

But that wasn't very efficient, so in the 1600s in Europe, people started creating printed newsletters. These were like the first newspapers. They were usually one-page sheets with important news stories. They were still hand-written, but they were printed with a special machine called a printing press.

As time went on, more and more people started reading newspapers. In the 1700s and 1800s, newspapers became bigger and more popular. They had more pages, more stories, and even advertisements. They were printed on bigger and better printing presses too, which made them faster and cheaper to produce.

In the United States, newspapers played a big role in the American Revolution. People would read newspapers to learn about what was happening in the war and to get news about their new country. During this time, some very famous newspapers were published, including the Pennsylvania Gazette and the Boston Gazette.

Newspapers continued to evolve over time. In the 1800s and early 1900s, newspapers became more political. They would support certain political parties and share their opinions on important issues. This was called "yellow journalism" and it is still around today, but we call it "tabloid journalism".

Today, newspapers are still very important. But instead of being printed on paper, they are often read on computers, phones, and tablets. People still read newspapers to stay informed about the world around them, but now they can do it from anywhere, at any time. And that's the history of newspaper publishing, in a nutshell!