The first newspapers were written by hand and put up on walls in public place. The earliest daily newspaper was started in Rome in 59 BC. In the 700's the world's first printed newspaper was published. Europe didn't have a regularly published newspaper until 1609, when one was started in Germany.
The first regularly published newspaper in the English language was printed in Amsterdam in 1620. In 1621, an English newspaper was started in London and was published once a week. The first daily English newspaper was the Daily Courant (每日新闻). It came out in March 1702.
In 1690, Benjamin Harris printed the first American newspaper in Boston. But not long after it was first published, the government stopped the paper. In 1704, John Campbell started The Boston Newsletter (波斯顿新闻通讯), the first newspaper published in the American colonies. By 1760, the colonies had more than thirty daily newspapers. There are now about 1,800 daily papers in the United States.
Today, as a group, English language newspapers have the largest circulation (发行量) in the world. But the largest circulation for a newspaper is that of the Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun(朝日新闻). It sells more than eleven million copies every day.

第一份报刊由人手书写并展示于公共场所的墙上。最早一份日报问世于公元前59年的罗马。在公元7世纪，世界第一份印刷的报刊才正式出版。直至1609年，在德国第一份定期出版的报刊问世之前，欧洲还没有一份定期出版的报刊。
1620年，第一份定期出版的英文报纸在阿姆斯特丹印刷。1621年，一份每星期出版一次的英文报刊问世于伦敦。第一份英文的日报是《每日新闻》报，该报发刊于1702年3月。
1690年，Benjamin Harris在波士顿发行了第一份美国报刊，但发行不久即遭政府停刊。1704年，John Campbell创建了《波士顿新闻通讯》报，该报是美国殖民地发行的第一份报刊。截至1760年，殖民地已拥有３０多种日报。现在美国大约拥有1800多种日报。
目前，英文报刊作为一大类，在世界上拥有最大的发行量。但最大发行量的报刊则是日文报刊《朝日新闻》报，该报每日发行量为1100万份。