HISTORY OF BRITISH NEWSPAPERS

The history of British newspapers dates to the 17th century with the emergence of regular publications covering news and gossip. The relaxation of government censorship in the late 17th century led to a rise in publications, which in turn led to an increase in regulation throughout the 18th century. The Times began publication in 1785 and became the leading newspaper of the early 19th century, before the lifting of taxes on newspapers and technological innovations led to a boom in newspaper publishing in the late 19th century. Mass education and increasing affluence led to new papers such as the Daily Mail emerging at the end of the 19th century, aimed at lower-middle class readers.

In the early 20th century the British press was dominated by a few wealthy press barons. In a bid to increase circulation many papers included more popular and human-interest stories, as well as sports and other features. In 1969 Rupert Murdoch bought and re launched The Sun as a tabloid and soon added pictures of topless models on Page 3. Within a few years the Sun was the UK's most popular newspaper.
In the 1980s national newspapers began to move out of Fleet Street, the traditional home of the British national press since the 18th century. By the early 21st century newspaper circulation began to decline.
In the early 2010s many British newspapers were implicated in a major phone hacking scandal which led to the closure of the News of the World after 168 years of publication and the Leveson Inquiry into press standards.
During the 17th century there were many kinds of news publications that told both the news and rumors’, such as pamphlets, posters and ballads. Even when news periodicals emerged, many of these co-existed with them. A news periodical differs from these mainly because of its periodicity. The definition for 17th century news books and newspapers is that they are published at least once a week. Johann Carol us' Relation alert Firemen und gedenckwürdigen Historian, published in Strasburg in 1605, is usually regarded as the first news periodical.
At the beginning of the 17th century, the right to print was strictly controlled in England. This was probably the reason why the first newspaper in the English language was printed in Rome by Juries Veseler around 1620. This followed the style established by Veseler's earlier Dutch paper Courante uyt Italian, Duytslandt, &c. However, when the English started printing their own papers in London, they reverted to the pamphlet format used by contemporary books. The publication of these news books was suspended between 1632 and 1638 by order of the Star Chamber. After they resumed publication, the era of these news books lasted until the publication of the Oxford Gazette in 1665.
The control over printing relaxed greatly after the abolition of the Star Chamber in 1641. The Civil War escalated the demand for news. News pamphlets or books reported the war, often supporting one side or the other. A number of publications arose after the Restoration, including the London Gazette (first published on 16 November 1665 as the Oxford Gazette), the first official journal of record and the newspaper of the Crown. Publication was controlled under the Licensing Act of 1662, but the Act's lapses from 1679–1685 and from 1695 onwards encouraged a number of new titles.
Mercury’s Caledonia’s founded in Edinburgh in 1660, was Scotland's first but short-lived newspaper. Only 12 editions were published during 1660 and 1661.
There were twelve London newspapers and 24 provincial papers by the 1720s (the Daily Courant was the first daily newspaper in London). The Public Advertiser was started by Henry Woodall in the 18th century.

The first English journalist to achieve national importance was Daniel Defoe. In February 1704, he began his weekly, The Review, which was eventually printed three times a week and was a forerunner of The Tattler (started by Richard Steele in 1709) and The Spectator (started by Steele and Joseph Addison in 1711). Defoe's Review came to an end in 1713. Between 1716 and 1720 he published a monthly newspaper with old style title, Mercury’s Politic us. The Examiner started in 1710 as the chief Conservative political mouthpiece, which enjoyed as its most influential contributor, Jonathan Swift. Swift had control of the journal for 33 issues between November 1710 and June 1711, but once he became dean of St. Patrick's Cathedral in Dublin, he gave up regular journalistic work.
In 1702 Edward Lloyd, the virtual founder of the famous "Lloyd's" of commerce, started a thrice a week newspaper, Lloyd's News, which had but a brief existence in its initial form, but was the precursor of the modern Lloyd's List. The 76th issue of the original paper contained a paragraph mentioning the House of Lords, for which the publisher was told he would have to pay a fine. He preferred to discontinue his publication instead. In 1726 he in part revived it, under the title of Lloyd's List, published at first weekly; it would later become a daily.
The Edinburgh Courant was published out of Edinburgh, Midlothian, Scotland. Its first issue was dated 14-19 Feb 1705 and was sold for a penny. It was one of the country's first regional papers, second only to the Norwich Post (1701). The paper was produced twice weekly for five years, then continued as the Scots Courant until April 1720. Later that same year, the Edinburgh Evening Courant began publication, and it survived until the Evening News came into existence in 1873.
The increasing popularity and influence of newspapers was problematic to the government of the day. The first bill in parliament advocating a tax on newspapers was proposed in 1711. The duty

eventually imposed in 1712 was a halfpenny on papers of half a sheet or less and a penny on newspapers that ranged from half a sheet to a single sheet in size. Jonathan Swift expressed in his Journal to Stella on 7 August 1712, doubt in the ability of The Spectator to hold out against the tax. This doubt was proved justified in December 1712 by its discontinuance. However, some of the existing journals continued production and their numbers soon increased. Part of this increase was attributed to corruption and political connections of its owners.