First published on April 24, 1704, The Boston News-Letter is regarded as the first continuously published newspaper in British North America. It was heavily subsidized by the British government, with a limited circulation. The colonies’ first newspaper was Publick Occurrences Both Forreign and Domestick, which published its first and only issue on September 25 1690. In 1718, the Weekly Jamaica Courant followed in Kingston. In 1726 the Boston Gazette began publishing with Bartholomew Green Jr. as printer.
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The News-Letter’s first editor was John Campbell, a bookseller and postmaster of Boston. It was originally issued weekly as a half sheet – a single page printed on both sides. During its early years it was filled primarily with news from London journals describing English politics and the details of European wars. As the only newspaper in the colonies at the time, it also reported on the sensational death of Blackbeard the pirate in hand-to-hand combat in 1718.[1]
In 1722 the editorship passed to Bartholomew Green, the paper’s printer, who focused more on domestic events. After his death in 1732 his son John Draper, also a printer, took the paper’s helm. He enlarged the paper to four pages and filled it with news from throughout the colonies.
Publishers included John Campbell (1704-ca.1723); Bartholomew Green (1723-ca.1732); John Draper (1733–1762); Richard Draper (1762–1774); John Boyle (1774); Margaret Draper (1774); and John Howe (1775). Printers included Bartholomew Green (1704-ca.1732); and John Allen (1707).[2]