Type | Biweekly newspaper |
---|---|
Format | Small format broadsheet |
Publisher | Steven Fowle, Editor in Chief |
Founded | 1756/1989 |
Political alignment | Progressive |
Headquarters | Portsmouth, New Hampshire |
Website | nhgazette |
The New Hampshire Gazette is a philanthrojournalism, alternative, bi-weekly newspaper published in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Its editors claim that the paper, which all but disappeared into other publications until the late 1900s, is the oldest newspaper in the United States. [1] The paper trademarked the phrase "The Nation's Oldest Newspaper" after being revived as a small biweekly in 1989. This assertion is highly contested, and the Hartford Courant is generally understood to be the nation's oldest newspaper when considering scholarly articles, standard journalism, and historical texts. [2]
The New Hampshire Gazette was founded in Portsmouth on October 7, 1756, by printer Daniel Fowle as the first newspaper in the Province of New Hampshire. Fowle lived in Boston before founding the Gazette, and was the first to print the words of Samuel Adams. He also spent time in prison for printing anti-British pamphlets "The Monster of Monsters" and "A Total Eclipse of Liberty."
Before the Stamp Act of 1765 was to take effect on November 1 of that year The New Hampshire Gazette featured an edition with black borders about its edges and columns, protesting the tax it was about to place on paper and advertising. Other newspapers, like the Pennsylvania Journal , also featured editions with black borders in response to the coming Stamp Act. The November 1 edition of the Gazette also included a lengthy article strongly deriding the act. [3] [4] [5]
The Gazette continued publishing after Fowle's death in 1787, and in 1839, was recognized as the oldest newspaper in America after the Maryland Gazette ceased publication. Starting in the 1890s, the Gazette was published by The Portsmouth Herald on weekends as a supplement to the Herald. In 1960, the Gazette was renamed the Herald Weekend Edition, although the masthead indicated that the paper was "Continuing the New Hampshire Gazette."
During the American Revolution it published a eulogy, dated Epsom, July 1775, to Andrew McClary, who died during the Battle of Bunker Hill. It read: "The Major discovered great intrepidity and presence of mind in the action, and his noble soul glowed with ardor and the love of his country . . ." [6]
In 1989, a descendant of Daniel Fowle's, Steven Fowle, discovered that the Herald relinquished the trade name for the Gazette. Fowle registered the rights to the name and that spring began publishing the Gazette as an independent entity "episodically, in a very small format" until May 1, 1999, when the publishers began its current format and schedule. [7]
The Hartford Courant , founded as a weekly in 1764, [8] calls itself the nation's oldest continuously published newspaper, and is cited as such in scholarly articles, standard journalism, and historical texts. [9] It was an independent company until it was absorbed by Times Mirror, the parent company of the Los Angeles Times, in 1979. Tribune Corporation acquired Times Mirror, and by extension the Hartford Courant, in 2000. In contrast, the New Hampshire Gazette has changed owners "over two-dozen times", by its owner's count, and has often merged with other publications. [10]
The Newport Mercury in Rhode Island was identified as the nation's oldest newspaper during one of the New Hampshire Gazette's lulls. It was founded in 1758. [11] The Newport Mercury ceased publication during the American Revolutionary War which The Hartford Courant cites as definitive proof that only itself, and not Mercury, can qualify as the longest "continuously published" newspaper in the United States. [12] The Mercury eventually was published by The Newport Daily News as a weekly by-mail edition, reprinting stories from the daily for out-of-town subscribers. Most recently, it became a tabloid magazine and web site using the address newportmercury.com but also using the name Mercury Magazine. [13]
The Gazette, as an alternative paper, is more focused on commentary than the reporting of current events. Its editorial content can easily be described as "liberal". In recent years the paper has cemented its self-imposed mission as an independent voice railing against corporate media and conservative political control.
Published every two weeks as a smaller format broadsheet, usually of 14–20 pages, the Gazette's front page is usually an editorial called "The Fortnightly Rant", covering a few subjects of national or regional importance, accompanied by a political cartoon by Mike Dater reflecting the editorial. The motto of the newspaper is the motto of the state of New Hampshire, Live free or die .
Among articles of varying size and content are regular columns such as "Moving Pictures" (film commentary) by Rodman Philbrick and most notedly a regular essay, "History Matters," covering two pages or more by Portsmouth historian J. Dennis Robinson. Other regular features include "Hate Mail, Mash Notes, & Other Correspondence" (the letters page), the "Northcountry Chronicle", an editorial by William Marvel, "Free the Media Press" (stories culled from the New Hampshire Indymedia Collective), and a reprinting of "Vintage News" from past issues of the Gazette usually dating to the mid-19th century. ("Better old news, than new lies.") The most popular section of the newspaper is "Admiral Fowle's Piscataqua River Tidal Guide" on the last page which, in addition to a chronology of the tides to take place over each day of the upcoming two weeks, contains an idiosyncratic, and often hilarious listing of significant events from that day in history.
The paper's circulation is about 5,500, with nearly 1,000 mail subscribers throughout the country. [10]
For many years, the website for the Gazette had many resources in relation to its history, including a 19th-century reproduction of its first issue, a timeline and explanation of its position as oldest newspaper, and much more. Beginning the summer of 2007, the website changed focus and format to that of a blog-type website. Content from each issue of the paper is minimal in comparison with how most newspapers publish articles online as well as in print, though the Gazette occasionally does offer a PDF of an issue, usually a couple of weeks after its publication.
The Hartford Courant is the largest daily newspaper in the U.S. state of Connecticut, and is considered to be the oldest continuously published newspaper in the United States. A morning newspaper serving most of the state north of New Haven and east of Waterbury, its headquarters on Broad Street in Hartford, Connecticut is a short walk from the state capitol. It reports regional news with a chain of bureaus in smaller cities and a series of local editions. It also operates CTNow, a free local weekly newspaper and website.
The Quebec Chronicle-Telegraph, founded by William Brown as the Quebec Gazette on 21 June 1764, is the oldest running newspaper in North America. It is currently published as an English language weekly from its offices in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada.
Daniel Fowle was a colonial American printer and publisher before and during the American Revolution, and the founder of The New Hampshire Gazette. He printed Samuel Adams' newspaper, The Independent Advertiser. He was jailed for printing a damaging account on the conduct of various Massachusetts representatives and after his trial, he lost his license to print. Dismayed with the Massachusetts government he subsequently chose to remove from Massachusetts to New Hampshire and established The New Hampshire Gazette. During the course of his printing career Fowle employed several apprentices. Using his newspaper, he openly criticized the Stamp Act in 1765. After American independence was established he was commissioned to print the state laws of New Hampshire.
Isaiah Thomas was an early American printer, newspaper publisher and author. He performed the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence in Worcester, Massachusetts, and reported the first account of the Battles of Lexington and Concord. He was the founder of the American Antiquarian Society.
The Newport Daily News is a six-day daily newspaper serving Newport County, Rhode Island. It publishes in the mornings on weekdays and in the morning on Saturdays. The Daily News was the state's largest family-owned newspaper until it was purchased by Gatehouse Media in 2017.
The Yankee Quill Award is a regional American journalism award that recognizes a lifetime contribution toward excellence in journalism in New England. The award is bestowed annually by the Academy of New England Journalists, and administered by the New England Society of Newspaper Editors. It is considered the highest individual honor awarded by fellow journalists in the region.
CTNow is a free weekly newspaper in central and southwestern Connecticut, United States, published by the Hartford Courant.
John Bushell was the first printer in what is now Canada.
The Daily Hampshire Gazette is a six-day morning daily newspaper based in Northampton, Massachusetts, United States, and covering all of Hampshire County, southern towns of Franklin County, and Holyoke. The newspaper prints Monday through Saturday, with the latter labeled "Weekend Edition". As of 2023, it is the longest running daily newspaper in Massachusetts.
The Portsmouth Herald is a six-day daily newspaper serving greater Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Its coverage area also includes the municipalities of Greenland, New Castle, Newington and Rye, New Hampshire; and Eliot, Kittery, Kittery Point and South Berwick, Maine.
The New-England Courant, one of the first American newspapers, was founded in Boston in 1721, by James Franklin. It was a weekly newspaper and the third to appear in Boston. Unlike other newspapers, it offered a more critical account about the British colonial government and other royal figures of authority. The newspaper published critical commentary about smallpox inoculation which fueled the controversy during the smallpox epidemic in Boston. Ultimately it was suppressed in 1726 by British colonial authorities for printing what they considered seditious articles. Franklin took on his brother, Benjamin Franklin, as an apprentice and at one point was compelled to sign over publication of the Courant to him to avert further prosecution. Benjamin submitted anonymous editorials to the Courant, which resulted in James' imprisonment after he began publishing them. This sort of Governmental censorship of early colonial newspapers is what largely fostered the American ideal of Freedom of Speech in the press. The New England Courant is widely noted among historians as being the first newspaper to publish Benjamin's writings.
James Franklin was an early American printer, publisher and author of newspapers and almanacs in the American colonies. James published the New England Courant, one of the oldest and the first truly independent American newspapers, and the short lived Rhode Island Gazette.
TheNewport Mercury, was an early American colonial newspaper founded in 1758 by Ann Smith Franklin (1696–1763), and her son, James Franklin (1730–1762), the nephew of Benjamin Franklin. The newspaper was printed on a printing press imported by Franklin's father, James Franklin (1697–1735), in 1717 from London. The Mercury may be the first newspaper published by a woman in the colonial United States. The Mercury was the also first paper to publish poetry by an African American woman, Phillis Wheatley.
Solomon Southwick was a Newport, Rhode Island printer and newspaper publisher. He was a prominent Patriot during the American Revolution, and printed some of the first copies of the Declaration of Independence after its adoption in 1776.
The 1946 New Hampshire Wildcats football team was an American football team that represented the University of New Hampshire as a member of the Yankee Conference during the 1946 college football season. In its first year under head coach Bill Glassford, the team compiled a 6–1–1 record, outscoring their opponents 161–45. The team played its home games at Lewis Field in Durham, New Hampshire.
Early American publishers and printers played a central role in the social, religious, political and commercial development of the Thirteen Colonies in British America prior to and during the American Revolution and the ensuing American Revolutionary War that established American independence.
Samuel Hall (1740-1807), was an Early American publisher and printer, newspaper editor, and an ardent colonial American patriot from Bedford, Massachusetts who was active in this capacity before and during the American Revolution, often printing newspapers and pamphlets in support of American independence. Hall was the founder of The Essex Gazette, the first newspaper published in Salem, Massachusetts in 1768. He often employed his newspaper as a voice supporting colonial grievances over taxation and other actions by the British Parliament that were considered oppressive, and ultimately in support of American independence.
newport mercury history.
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