What year was the first newspaper published in the U.S.?
Last updated: February 8, 2025
Getting news in colonial America was tricky business. No Twitter, no newspapers, just a lot of word-of-mouth and letters from England that might show up months late. Someone was bound to try starting a newspaper, even though publishing without permission could land you in serious trouble. When did someone finally take the risk and publish the first newspaper?
What year was the first newspaper published in the U.S.?
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The answer is: 1690
In 1690, Benjamin Harris printed "Publick Occurrences Both Forreign and Domestick" in Boston, making it America's first newspaper. This was his second attempt at a publishing venture, as he had already tried, failed, and been arrested for printing unauthorized materials in England.
Harris filled his four pages with juicy stories about local scandals, including rumors that the French king was getting a bit too cozy with his daughter-in-law. He also reported on a suicide in town and some truly nasty business about Native Americans getting smallpox.
In a rare moment of cross-Atlantic agreement, the colonial government completely freaked out over the contents and shut down the paper after exactly one issue. Like the Brits before them, they seized every copy they could find and banned anyone from publishing anything without their permission.
But like the saying goes, third time's the charm. After his newspaper disaster in Boston, the colony of Massachusets trusted him enough to print "The Acts and Laws of Massachusetts." But that's a lot less fun than gossip, and Harris eventually packed up and went back to London in 1695.
It took another 14 years before America got its first continuously published newspaper when John Campbell finally got official permission to publish the "Boston News-Letter" in 1704. Campbell played it much safer than Harris, mostly just copying news from London papers and avoiding anything too controversial. Boring but effective – his paper stayed in print for 72 years.