tale


market, which Thomas Archer thought he could fill with his home-produced product. Coming out perhaps as early as the spring of 1621, Corante: or, Newes from Italy, Germany, Hungarie, Spaine and France, had a not very snappy title which echoed – or ripped off – the first of the now banned Anglo-Dutch papers. No copies survive but a letter from a reader does. It seems that Archer’s crime consisted of not only reproducing Dutch articles without a government licence but also ‘adding’ to them without showing which bits were his own creations. While today we must all frown on


the inventing of quotes, a spell behind bars does seem a draconian punishment for printing unattributable information. Archer was soon let out of his cell but this episode seems to have put paid to his short career as a coranto CEO. He would have been less than pleased to learn


that the gap in the market which he had left was being filled by a competitor who managed to produce an English publication, print in


When Galileo was a star story


would take it as a personal favour if they banned the export of these English language publications. And so the Anglo-Dutch press was instantly deleted. This left a gap in the English


The pioneering publishers of news were a highly respectable bunch. Johann Carolus of Strasbourg produced handwritten newsletters for rich subscribers until, in the summer of 1605, he decided to upgrade from quill pen to printing press and sell his tiny


news books for a lot less money but to many more readers. He is credited with a stellar scoop – a report on Galileo’s telescope. Other German papers


were launched then Holland became the news hub of Europe, with the launch of Courante uyt Italien, Duytslandt in 1618. Other corantos followed, first


in Dutch then translated for the English market. These were pretty minimalist


productions, often a single sheet of paper. However, they rattled James I, who disapproved


of his subjects knowing too much about the world, let alone their own country. His Royal Highness stamped


out these exports from the Netherlands, whereupon Thomas Archer brought out the first coranto printed in England. Pretty soon, this pioneering


printer and publisher had his collar felt. ‘King Locks Up Editor Shock


Horror – Come Off It Sire, We Say’ was the headline of Archer’s paper. At least it would have been if he hadn’t been banged up.


England and stay out of jail. The trick employed by the enterprising Weekly Newes was the simple expedient of investing in ‘a licence to print corantos and sell them, honestly


translated out of the Dutch’. In this context, ‘honestly’ meant that, unlike


Archer’s ‘newes-paper’, no concepts were added to the Dutch texts. The idea of an exclusive had not troubled the original corantos. The fact all the material was secondhand demonstrated its accuracy. The proud boast was: remember, you read it here second. This would avoid fake news or, as they put it at the time, ‘mif-information.


The lucky licencee of the Weekly Newes was


recorded only as ‘N.B.’, which did not, sadly, stand for a nibs or news in brief but were the initials of the proprietor, whose identity is uncertain but was either one Nathaniel Butler or a Nicholas Bourne. Whatever the name of its press baron, the paper broke new ground (but probably not stories) by coming out regularly for a sustained period of three years, although it kept its readers on their toes by varying the title occasionally. Its longevity was possible only because it steered clear of any home news. Luckily for British journalism, the Star Chamber was abolished in 1642, freeing journalists from its tyranny. This was, of course, too late for poor Thomas Archer and the corantos but they lived on in the title of the first successful English daily paper, launched in 1702. The Daily Courant was established “next door to the King’s Arms Tavern at Fleet Bridge”, so the editor always knew where to find the staff in a hurry.


theJournalist | 11


FALKENSTEINFOTO / ALAMY STOCK PHOTO


Looking back to:


1621


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