In 1440, Gutenberg invented a movable-type press that permitted the high-quality reproduction of printed materials at a rate of nearly 4,000 pages per day, or 1,000 times more than could be done by a scribe by hand. This innovation drove down the price of printed materials and, for the first time, made them accessible to a mass market.

Newspapers have traditionally been published in print (usually on cheap, low-grade paper called newsprint). However, today most newspapers are also published on websites as online newspapers, and some have even abandoned their print versions entirely. Newspapers developed in the 17th century as information sheets for merchants.

The daily newspaper is essentially the product of an industrialized society. In its independent form, the newspaper is usually integral to the development of democracy. The newspaper thus defined was fairly late in emerging, since it depended on a certain basic freedom of speech and relatively widespread literacy.

Before printing was invented, each copy of a text had to be written by hand. That process was costly and took a lot of time. In the mid-1400s Johannes Gutenberg invented a printing press that made it possible to print words on paper quickly. From that time newsletters and pamphlets about news events were published in Europe.