Were there newspapers before Gutenberg's printing machine?

Not in the sense we know them today, but forerunners to newspapers include Acta Diurna, a government listing of public notices and news that began around 131 BCE. read more

Ten Cylinder Rotary Type-Revolving Press (R. Hoe), c. 1856 from Robert Hoe's A Short History of the Printing Press and of Improvements in Printing Machinery from the Time of Gutenberg up to the Present Day (1902). Newspaper and magazine presses were often large, specially constructed machines that would produce many copies as quickly as possible. read more

For approximately 4,500 years before Gutenberg invented the printing press, books were produced by hand. They were written on surfaces of clay, papyrus, wax, and parchment. Law books, cookbooks, works of philosophy and science, great comedies and tragedies were all painstakingly copied and all too often lost through war and neglect. read more