America's first multi-page newspaper lasted one issue
On this day · 25 September 1690
On September 25, 1690, Boston's Publick Occurrences became the colonies' first multi-page newspaper—and was banned within days.
On September 25, 1690, Boston printer Benjamin Harris issued Publick Occurrences, Both Foreign and Domestick, the first multi-page newspaper published in Britain’s North American colonies. It ran to four pages—three printed, the last left blank so readers could scrawl their own news before passing it along.
Harris promised a monthly edition, “or if any Glut of occurrences happen, oftener.” He never got the chance. Within four days, the governor and council suppressed the paper for printing “without authority,” objecting to its “sundry doubtful and uncertain Reports.”
The real offense was the content: Harris had needled the British military’s conduct and aired rumors about the French royal family. Authorities destroyed every copy they could find; a single issue survives, held by the British Library.
A continuous American newspaper would not appear until 1704, with the Boston News-Letter.
The press in America, it turned out, would have to wait for permission—at least for a little while longer.
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