How old is the oldest newspaper

These days, newspapers aren't so concerned about which of them is the oldest - they're more concerned with staying alive. But claims of longevity were once a way to boost status and solidity. In , The Inquirer commissioned and published a full-color magazine-style supplement - written by prominent local historian Nicholas Wainwright - to "document" its standing as the incarnation of a paper founded in But The Inquirer's history of consolidations and mergers included the Pennsylvania Packet, produced by a Philadelphia printer named John Dunlap.

His weekly tabloid began operation in October , each edition consisting of four pages. The Packet went through a series of changes in ownership and name before being merged in with the North American. The New York Post, established in , is the nation's oldest continuously published daily newspaper. It continues to be known as such till today and is still published, and claims to be the newspaper with the longest publication history.

Sadly, not much is known about this newspaper other than its legacy as the first of its kind. It was founded on the 1st of July in and was published in Leipzig, Germany. It is the oldest newspaper that is still in publication till today, though it switched to an online only publication in Despite being an online newspaper only now, four copies of each issue continue to be printed for storage and archiving in the National Library of Sweden, Swedish Companies Registration Office, and Lund University library.

The Gazeta is a unique entry on this list because not much is known about it, and it barely meets the definition of a newspaper due to its short-lived nature. It was the first Catalan newspaper and the first periodical magazine in the Iberian Peninsula. The Gazeta did not have a long lifespan, only having two published issues before ceasing all publications.

Not only was La Gazette the first French newspaper, it was also the first weekly magazine published in France. It quickly rose to being widely read, making it a useful tool for controlling the information facilitated to the public, especially in such a centralized state.

The paper soon became a mouthpiece of the Legitimists , a Royalist faction, and saw regular contributions from high profile individuals like Cardinal Richelieu and Louis XIII. Its readers were mainly the elite upper class until the revolution.

The newspaper lasted an impressive amount of time before closing publications in due to the modernization of news media. Translated as the Antwerp Gazette , there was no actual name for this newspaper, which was the first Flemish newspaper to ever be published. The news featured in the Antwerp Gazette was sourced from Western and Central Europe and covered a wide variety of general news, often including satirical columns, prayers, celebrity news, and ever songs and verses.

While the Courant continued to offer a weekly edition of its paper right up until , on September 12, , it supplemented its news coverage with a new daily edition—the first daily newspaper in Hartford. During this time, the paper not only covered important events and ran advertisements for suppliers of goods and services but reflected the strong pro-slavery sentiments that existed in Connecticut by running ads meant to aid in the capture of fugitive slaves.

Though slavery maintained deep roots in Connecticut, the paper stopped running these advertisements by the time state legislators abolished slavery in In , with its daily edition in high demand, the paper published its first-ever Sunday edition. The steady growth of the paper in the 20th century eventually caught the eye of a Los Angeles-based media company called Times Mirror, and in , amid a flurry of media-outlet mergers, Times Mirror purchased the paper. With a background in television, radio, and publishing, Tribune helped The Hartford Courant maintain its credibility among the frenzy of new media outlets that emerged in the digital age.

Other changes brought by the industry-wide shake-up of traditional print journalism, such as shrinking circulations and declining revenues from advertising, also led to significant reductions in Courant staff—particularly when its parent company underwent restructuring during a roughly 4-year period of Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Today, as it continues to navigate the changing media landscape, The Hartford Courant maintains a daily circulation of over , and almost , on Sundays.

Its recently digitized archives offers researchers and historians a firsthand look at the evolving American landscape over the past years. McNulty, J.