Avisa Relation oder Zeitung

"Avisa Relation oder Zeitung" was one of the first news-periodicals in the world. It was published in Augsburg, Germany in 1609. The printer/publisher was Lucas Schulte. The first issue states that the news had been collected from various countries by January 15. It is presumed that the issue was printed on or about that date. [Morison, S. (1980) The Origins of the Newspaper. In "Selected Essays on the History of Letter-Forms in Manuscript and Print", (Ed, McKitterick, D.) Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.]

Some books mention the "Avisa" as the world's first newspaper. [For example: Chappell, W. & Bringhurst R.: "Short History of the Printed Word", pp. 141-143. Hartley & Marks, Vancouver 1999.] Before 2005 there was a dispute whether the "Avisa" or the "Relation aller Fürnemmen und gedenckwürdigen Historien", which was printed in Strasbourg by Johann Carolus, was first. It was believed that both started in 1609. New evidence found in 2005 suggests that the "Relation" started as early as 1605. [World Association of Newspapers: [http://www.wan-press.org/article6476.html "Newspapers: 400 Years Young!"] ]

There is also a differing view, which does not regard either of these two publications as newspapers in a formal sense. Authors like Stanley Morison [Morison, S. (1980) The Origins of the Newspaper. In "Selected Essays on the History of Letter-Forms in Manuscript and Print", (Ed, McKitterick, D.) Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.] make a distinction between newsbooks (weekly news publications in a quarto format) and later folio-sized newspapers.

References

ee also

*Newspaper
*History of British newspapers