The Day the Newspaper Died

On October 10, 1765, an Annapolis printer changed his newspaper’s title to the Maryland Gazette, Expiring. Its motto: “In uncertain Hopes of a Resurrection to Life again.” Later that month, the printer of the Pennsylvania Journal
replaced his newspaper’s masthead with a death’s-head and framed his
front page with a thick black border in the shape of a gravestone.
“Adieu, Adieu,” the Journal whispered. On October 31st, the New-Hampshire Gazette appeared with black mourning borders and, in a column on page 1, lamented its own demise: “I must Die!” The Connecticut Courant quoted the book of Samuel: “Tell it not in Gath! publish it not in Askalon!” The newspaper is dead!

Or, then as now, not quite dead yet.– Jill Lepore, The New Yorker

In the last few months, the newspaper business has changed so much that I’m having trouble settling on a text for the journalism class I’m teaching (starting next Tuesday).  It’s likely that I’ll just assemble a reading list from current articles such as this one.