Development of Newspaper Magazines and Books

Printing is a process for reproducing text and image, typically with ink on paper using a printing press. It is often carried out as a large-scale industrial process, and is an essential part of publishing and transaction printing (Wikipedia). Printing is a name used for several processes by which words, pictures, or designs are reproduced on paper, fabrics, metal, or other suitable materials. This consists essentially of making numerous identical reproductions of an original by mechanical means in Newspaper, Magazines, and Books.

A newspaper is a publication that appears regularly and frequently, and carries news about a wide variety of current events. Organizations such as trade unions, religious groups, corporations or clubs may have their own newspapers, but the term is more commonly used to refer to daily or weekly publications that bring news of general interest to large portions of the public in a specific geographic area (Wikipedia). Is a written publication containing news, information and advertising, usually printed on low-cost paper called newsprint. General-interest newspapers often feature articles on political events, crime, business, art/entertainment, society and sports. Most traditional papers also feature an editorial page containing columns which express the personal opinions of writers (Wikipedia). In America, the first newspaper appeared in Boston in 1690, entitled “Public Occurrences”. Published without authority, it was immediately suppressed, its publisher arrested, and all copies were destroyed. Indeed, it remained forgotten until 1845 when the only known surviving example was discovered in the British Library (Stephens, 1994). The first successful newspaper was the Boston News-Letter, begun by postmaster John Campbell in 1704. Although the colonial government heavily subsidized it, the experiment was a near-failure, with very limited circulation (Stephens, 1994). Two more papers made their appearance in the 1720's, in Philadelphia and New York, and the Fourth Estate slowly became established on the new continent. By the eve of the Revolutionary War, some two dozen papers were issued at all the colonies, although Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania would remain the centers of American printing for many years (Stephens, 1994). Articles in colonial papers, brilliantly conceived by revolutionary propagandists, were a major force that influenced public opinion in America from reconciliation with England to full political independence. Recent developments on the Internet are, however, posing major challenges to the business model of many newspapers (Stephens, 1994) . Paid circulation is declining in most countries, and advertising revenue, which makes up the bulk of most newspapers’ income, is shifting from print to online, resulting in a general decline in newspaper profits. This has led to some predictions that newspapers will shrink or even disappear, although new media technologies such as radio and television never supplanted print media (Wikipedia). Newspapers have in the modern world, played an important role in the exercise of freedom of expression. Whistle-blowers, and those who “leak” stories of corruption in political circles often choose to inform newspapers before other mediums of communication, relying on the perceived willingness of newspaper editors to expose the secrets and lies of those who would rather cover them (Stephens, 1994). However, there have been many circumstances of the political autonomy of newspapers being curtailed. Some ways newspapers have tried to improve their credibility are: appointing ombudsmen, developing ethics policies and training, using more stringent corrections policies, communicating their processes and rationale with readers, and asking sources to review articles after publication (Stephens, 1994). The future of newspapers is cloudy, with overall readership slowly declining in most developed countries due to increasing competition from television and the Internet. With the average American home now keeping a television set on for more than seven hours a day, the amount of time available for reading a newspaper has declined dramatically. In 1940, there was one newspaper circulated in the United States for every two adults, by 1990 one newspaper circulated for every three adults. According to surveys, the share of the adult population that "read a newspaper yesterday" has declined from 85 percent in 1946 to 73 percent in 1965 to 55 percent in 1985. According to one survey, only 8.9 percent of Americans said they kept up with news of the Persian Gulf War primarily though newspapers (Stephens, 1994). Evening newspapers, which were once brought home to provide evening entertainment in American homes, have felt the competition from television particularly strongly, they have disappeared in many large cities (Stephens, 1994). Most major newspapers have also added opinion pages,