Newspapers published under the same name on a regular schedule first appeared in Venice, Italy, in the 16th century. Handwritten newspapers called avisi, or gazettes, appeared weekly as early as 1566. They reported news brought to Venice by traders, such as accounts of wars and politics in other parts of Italy and Europe. Venetian gazettes established a style of journalism that most early printed newspapers followed—short sets of news items written under the name of the city they came from and the date on which they were sent. The oldest surviving copies of European newspapers are of two weeklies published in German in 1609—one in Strassburg (now Strasbourg, France) by Johann Carolus, the other in Wolfenbüttel, Germany, by Lucas Schulte.

Newspapers spread rapidly throughout Europe. One-page weeklies appeared in Basel, Switzerland, by 1610; in Frankfurt, Germany, and Vienna, Austria, by 1615; in Hamburg, Germany, by 1616; in Berlin, Germany, by 1617; and in Amsterdam, Netherlands, by 1618. The first newspaper printed in England appeared in 1621, and France produced a newspaper in 1631. However, printers in Amsterdam, a center of trade and of political and religious tolerance in the early 17th century, exported weeklies in French and in English as early as 1620. The first continuously published English newspaper was the Weekly News, published from 1622 to 1641. Italy's first printed weekly appeared by 1639, and Spain had one by 1641.

Early English newspapers were generally printed in one of two formats: in the style of the Dutch papers or in the style of the early German weeklies. Dutch-style papers compressed news stories onto four or fewer pages, while news in German-style weeklies covered up to 24 pages.

Courtesy: Microsoft Enacarta 2005