Introduction: When Newspapers Became a Marketplace
In the early seventeenth century, a reader opening a newspaper in Amsterdam expected to encounter reports about wars, foreign rulers, political developments and commercial affairs. Yet the appearance of advertisements introduced a new type of message into this flow of information. A printed announcement could tell readers that a book, map or other publication was available for purchase.
This development marked an important transformation in the history of marketing.
Newspapers were no longer simply vehicles for reporting events. They were becoming commercial intermediaries through which publishers, booksellers and other businesses could communicate with potential customers.
The origins of this transformation are closely associated with the Dutch-speaking Low Countries around 1620.
The Dutch Republic possessed a sophisticated printing industry, extensive trading networks and a growing readership interested in international information.
These conditions encouraged newspaper publishers to experiment with announcements that promoted goods and services.
The earliest advertisements were not necessarily sophisticated examples of persuasive copywriting.
Many were brief notices concerning new books, maps, pamphlets or other printed products.
Their significance lay in the new relationship they established between information, attention and commerce.
A newspaper attracted readers because it supplied news.
A business could then use that readership to communicate a commercial message.
This basic principle would eventually become central to the economics of newspapers, magazines, broadcasting and digital media.
However, identifying the world’s first newspaper advertisement is not straightforward.
The year 1620 is frequently cited, but different historical sources refer to different publications and different types of announcements.
Some notices promoted products published by the newspaper printer himself. Others announced books produced by separate businesses. Still others appeared as part of the news rather than as clearly separated advertisements.
Modern historians therefore distinguish between publisher announcements, editorial references to commercial products, independent advertisements and paid advertising.
These distinctions are essential to understanding how newspaper advertising developed.
Advertising Before Newspapers
Commercial communication existed long before the first printed newspapers.
Merchants, craftsmen and service providers had always needed ways to make their products known.
Signs, public announcements, market cries and other forms of communication helped connect sellers with potential buyers.
The introduction of printing in Europe during the fifteenth century expanded the possibilities for distributing commercial messages.
Printed notices could be reproduced and transported beyond the immediate location of a business.
Publishers used title pages, catalogues and separate printed announcements to inform customers about available books.
These practices preceded the newspaper.
The innovation of newspaper advertising was therefore not the invention of printed promotion.
It was the integration of commercial announcements into a regularly published news medium.
This distinction matters because the first printed advertisement and the first newspaper advertisement are not the same historical event.
Johann Carolus and the Birth of the Printed Newspaper
The development of newspaper advertising depended on the emergence of newspapers themselves.
Johann Carolus, a printer and news entrepreneur working in Strasbourg, played a central role in this process.
Before establishing his printed newspaper, Carolus supplied handwritten news reports to subscribers.
These reports gathered information from different European regions.
In 1605, he began reproducing such material using a printing press.
His publication became known as the Relation aller Fürnemmen und gedenckwürdigen Historien.
The University of Pennsylvania Libraries identifies the Relation as a pioneering regularly printed newspaper and notes that the earliest surviving issues date from 1609 (University of Pennsylvania Libraries, n.d.).
The commercial importance of printing was substantial.
Handwritten newsletters required individual copying.
Printing made it possible to reproduce identical information in larger quantities.
This reduced the relative cost of additional copies and expanded the potential readership.
The newspaper consequently became a repeatable information product.
Regular publication also created the possibility of a continuing relationship with readers.
That relationship later made newspapers attractive to advertisers.
Nevertheless, the existence of newspapers from 1605 does not establish that commercial advertisements were already appearing in them.
The emergence of the printed newspaper and the development of newspaper advertising were separate, though closely connected, historical processes.
Amsterdam and the Expansion of the Dutch News Market
Amsterdam became one of Europe’s leading commercial and information centers during the early seventeenth century.
Merchants, shipowners, printers and traders maintained relationships across Europe and overseas.
Reliable information about political and military events could have significant commercial value.
News about wars, trade routes, foreign governments and maritime developments helped merchants assess risks and opportunities.
The city consequently provided a favorable environment for newspapers.
One of the earliest important Dutch publications was the Courante uyt Italien, Duytslandt, &c.
Its earliest known issue dates from June 1618.
Historical research summarized in De Gids describes the discovery of early Dutch newspapers in Swedish collections by the scholar Folke Dahl (De Gids, 1949).
The Courante provided reports from different European regions.
Its title referred to news from Italy, Germany and elsewhere.
The publication helped establish a regular readership interested in international affairs.
This readership became an important commercial resource.
Newspaper publishers could potentially reach people who were geographically dispersed but shared an interest in current information.
Advertising made it possible to connect such audiences with sellers.
Abraham Verhoeven and the Antwerp Nieuwe Tijdinghen
Antwerp was another important center of early newspaper publishing.
The printer Abraham Verhoeven produced news pamphlets and publications commonly grouped under the title Nieuwe Tijdinghen.
His activities developed in the Southern Netherlands, under Spanish Habsburg rule.
The political environment differed from that of the Dutch Republic.
Religious and military conflicts influenced the selection and presentation of news.
Verhoeven’s publications were part of this politically charged communication environment.
They also contributed to the early history of newspaper advertising.
Historical research identifies advertising-like announcements in Antwerp publications from around January 1620.
These are among the earliest surviving examples associated with newspapers in the Low Countries.
However, their exact classification requires care.
A notice concerning a new publication might be an advertisement, a publisher announcement or a news item with commercial significance.
The surviving evidence does not always reveal whether the notice was paid for.
For this reason, historians should avoid presenting a single example as the undisputed first newspaper advertisement without explaining the definition being used.
Broer Jansz and the Tijdinghen uyt verscheyde Quartieren
Broer Jansz was one of the most important early newspaper publishers in Amsterdam.
His publications later became known as the Tijdinghen uyt verscheyde Quartieren.
They played a significant role in the development of newspaper advertising.
Arthur der Weduwen and Andrew Pettegree have examined this history through an extensive study of Dutch and Flemish newspapers.
Their 2020 reference work documents approximately 6,000 advertisements and announcements published between 1620 and 1675 (der Weduwen and Pettegree, 2020).
One important early surviving advertisement appears in the Tijdinghen uyt verscheyde Quartieren dated 1 March 1621.
This example is frequently identified as the earliest surviving advertisement in a newspaper of the Dutch Republic.
Its significance is considerable.
It shows that commercial announcements were entering regular news publications at a very early stage in the history of printed newspapers.
Yet the evidence also demonstrates why the date of the first advertisement cannot be reduced to a simple universal statement.
The Antwerp evidence points to 1620, while important surviving Amsterdam examples date from 1621.
Different publications and different types of announcements must therefore be considered.
Why Early Newspaper Advertisements Promoted Books and Maps
The first advertisements were closely connected to the printing industry.
Many newspaper publishers were also printers, booksellers or participants in the wider book trade.
They had commercial reasons to announce new publications.
A newspaper provided an obvious communication channel.
Its readers were already interested in information, making them potential customers for books, pamphlets and maps.
Der Weduwen and Pettegree demonstrate that these products dominated early newspaper advertising (der Weduwen and Pettegree, 2020).
Maps were particularly relevant.
Readers following military campaigns or territorial conflicts might want geographical information that helped them understand the news.
A map showing the location of a siege could therefore complement the reports published in a newspaper.
The relationship between the advertisement and the surrounding content was important.
A seller could reach an audience whose interests were already related to the advertised product.
Modern marketers might describe this as contextual relevance.
The historical process was not based on automated targeting or consumer data.
Instead, relevance emerged from the close relationship between the news and the products being offered.
The Jodocus Hondius Map Announcement of 1622
A revealing example appeared in April 1622.
The historian Isabella Henriëtte van Eeghen documented an announcement concerning a map of the Bishopric of Paderborn associated with Jodocus Hondius.
The announcement appeared within the newspaper text on 9 April 1622 (van Eeghen, 1978).
Hondius was an important name in Dutch cartography.
Maps were valuable commercial products because they provided geographical knowledge and could help readers understand political and military events.
The announcement illustrates the close relationship between early advertising and the information needs of newspaper readers.
The map was not simply a decorative product.
It offered additional knowledge related to contemporary events.
This made the newspaper an appropriate place to announce its availability.
The example also reveals how the boundary between editorial information and commercial promotion was still developing.
A product announcement could appear as part of the news itself.
The more clearly separated advertising formats familiar from later newspapers had not yet become standard.
The West-Indische Spieghel Advertisement of 1624
An important development occurred on 27 July 1624.
According to van Eeghen, Broer Jansz published a separate advertisement for the West-Indische Spieghel, together with Jacob Pietersz Wachter (van Eeghen, 1978).
The publication reflected Dutch interest in overseas territories and maritime commerce.
During the seventeenth century, the Dutch Republic was increasingly involved in international trade and colonial expansion.
Information about distant regions therefore attracted commercial and political interest.
The advertisement is important because it appeared as a distinct notice rather than merely as an incidental reference within a news report.
This represented a further stage in the development of newspaper advertising.
A publication could use a newspaper’s readership to promote a specific product through a recognizable announcement.
However, the existence of a separate advertisement does not prove that the publisher received a fee.
Van Eeghen explicitly noted that the payment arrangements for early advertisements remain uncertain (van Eeghen, 1978).
The commercial advertising market developed gradually.
The distinction between a promotional notice and a paid advertising placement must therefore remain clear.
The Growth of Advertising by Independent Publishers
The early advertising market gradually expanded beyond announcements issued by newspaper publishers themselves.
Other printers, booksellers and cartographers began using newspapers to promote their products.
Van Eeghen documented advertisements involving Jan Evertsz Cloppenburch and Claes Jansz Visscher.
On 10 August 1624, Cloppenburch advertised a publication entitled Emblemata ofte Sinnewerck.
Visscher advertised maps, including material associated with the siege of Breda (van Eeghen, 1978).
The siege of Breda was a major event during the Eighty Years’ War.
Maps depicting the conflict were commercially relevant because newspaper readers were following developments in the war.
The advertisements therefore connected current events with purchasable information products.
The involvement of independent publishers was an important step.
Newspapers were becoming commercial intermediaries rather than merely promotional outlets for their own proprietors.
Different businesses could use the same newspaper to communicate with its readership.
This relationship would eventually form the foundation of the advertising-supported press.
Isaack Elzevier and the Advertisement for Joannes de Laet’s New World
Another significant example dates from 11 January 1625.
Van Eeghen records an advertisement associated with the Leiden printer Isaack Elzevier.
It promoted Joannes de Laet’s Nieuwe Wereldt ofte Beschrijvinghe van West-Indien.
The work offered geographical and historical information about the Americas, accompanied by maps and related material.
The advertisement demonstrates that newspaper promotion was becoming useful to publishers beyond the city where the newspaper itself was produced.
A printer in Leiden could reach potential customers through a newspaper circulating in another commercial center.
This expanded the geographical possibilities of advertising.
The announcement informed readers about a publication, identified its subject and connected it with a recognizable producer.
These basic functions remain familiar in modern advertising.
An advertisement creates awareness, communicates a product’s relevance and provides information that helps potential customers identify the seller.
How Advertising Changed the Economics of Newspapers
The introduction of advertising also changed the business opportunities available to newspaper publishers.
Newspapers involved recurring expenses.
Printers needed paper, labor, equipment and access to reliable information.
They also had to distribute their publications and maintain a regular readership.
Sales and subscriptions provided revenue, but advertising created an additional commercial possibility.
A publisher could use the attention of readers as a resource valued by other businesses.
Pettegree and der Weduwen explain that Dutch newspaper publishers adopted advertising relatively early and developed its commercial possibilities during the seventeenth century (Pettegree and der Weduwen, 2018).
This development created a distinctive relationship between newspapers and markets.
The newspaper supplied information to readers.
At the same time, it offered advertisers access to those readers.
The same general structure later became central to many forms of commercial media.
Magazines, radio, television, search engines and social media platforms differ greatly in technology and audience behavior.
Nevertheless, advertising-supported versions of these media share an important economic principle.
They attract audiences through content and generate commercial value by connecting those audiences with advertisers.
The Dutch newspapers of the seventeenth century represent an early stage in the development of this model.
From Books to Auctions, Services and Public Announcements
Newspaper advertising became more diverse as the seventeenth century progressed.
Books and maps remained important, but advertisements gradually included a wider range of goods, services and public information.
Pettegree and der Weduwen document announcements concerning auctions, professional services, missing property and other matters (Pettegree and der Weduwen, 2018).
A notable example appeared in 1634.
The heirs of Bernardus Paludanus, a physician from Enkhuizen, announced the sale of his celebrated collection.
This example demonstrates that newspapers could be used to publicize exceptional commercial opportunities.
Other notices announced the establishment of schools or communicated information of public interest.
Newspapers were becoming increasingly important as channels through which individuals and institutions could reach a broader public.
Advertising was therefore developing beyond the promotion of printed products.
It was becoming a general mechanism for public communication.
Early Public Appeals and the Origins of Newspaper Crowdsourcing
The expansion of newspaper announcements also created opportunities for readers to participate in solving problems.
In 1635, a notice concerning the murder of the mayor of Weesp appeared in a Dutch newspaper.
Pettegree and der Weduwen identify this as an important early example of using a newspaper announcement to seek assistance from the public (Pettegree and der Weduwen, 2018).
The notice did more than report a crime.
It attempted to mobilize readers.
This is historically significant because advertising and public announcements can encourage action rather than merely convey information.
A reader might be asked to provide information, contact an institution or help locate a missing person.
The same basic principle appears in many later forms of communication.
Advertisements often seek a measurable response.
That response might involve purchasing a product, attending an event, contacting a business or sharing information.
The Dutch notices of the seventeenth century illustrate early examples of this action-oriented communication.
England and the Advertisement of 1647
English-language advertising histories frequently mention an advertisement published in April 1647.
It appeared in Perfect Occurrences of Every Daie Journall in Parliament and promoted a religious book entitled The Divine Right of Church Government.
The 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica identified this as an early English newspaper advertisement.
It also documented further examples from 1648 and 1652 (Encyclopaedia Britannica, 1911).
An advertisement published in Mercurius Politicus in 1652 was sometimes described as the first newspaper advertisement.
However, the older reference work already recognized that earlier examples existed.
Modern research into Dutch newspapers makes the international chronology clearer.
Advertisements appeared in the Low Countries decades before the English examples of the 1640s.
The advertisement of 1647 is therefore important for the history of the English press, but it cannot be considered the world’s first newspaper advertisement.
Were There Newspaper Advertisements Before 1620?
The possibility of earlier newspaper advertisements requires careful consideration.
Printed commercial announcements existed before 1620.
Regular printed newspapers also existed from the beginning of the seventeenth century.
It is therefore possible that commercial notices appeared in newspapers before the earliest surviving Dutch examples.
However, a historical possibility is not the same as a documented fact.
The research of der Weduwen and Pettegree places the beginning of the surviving Dutch newspaper advertising record around 1620.
The earliest surviving evidence from the Dutch Republic includes the advertisement in the Tijdinghen uyt verscheyde Quartieren dated 1 March 1621.
Earlier advertising-like material is associated with Antwerp publications from 1620.
No securely verified pre-1620 newspaper advertisement can be identified from these sources.
This does not prove that none ever existed.
Many early newspaper issues have been lost, while others survive only in incomplete collections.
Future archival discoveries may alter the chronology.
The historically defensible conclusion is therefore that some of the earliest surviving newspaper advertisements appeared in the Dutch-speaking Low Countries around 1620.
Claims identifying one specific notice as the unquestionable first advertisement in world history should be treated cautiously.
The Contribution of Newspaper Advertising to Marketing History
The emergence of newspaper advertising transformed the relationship between commercial communication and public information.
Earlier advertising practices were often tied to physical marketplaces, shops or personal contact.
Newspapers enabled sellers to communicate with geographically dispersed audiences.
A merchant or publisher no longer needed to encounter every potential customer individually.
A printed announcement could reach many readers through the circulation of a regular publication.
This created new possibilities for commercial scale.
The newspaper also became an intermediary between businesses and consumers.
Publishers gathered an audience by supplying news.
Advertisers could then use that audience to promote their products.
The earliest examples reveal a close relationship between advertising and content.
Books, maps and other printed products were relevant to readers who already valued information.
This relationship helped establish the commercial usefulness of the newspaper as an advertising medium.
Over time, the range of advertised products expanded, and the newspaper became an increasingly important marketplace for goods, services and public announcements.
The historical significance of newspaper advertising therefore extends beyond the date of its first appearance.
Its importance lies in the creation of a repeatable communication system linking media audiences with commercial suppliers.
Conclusion: Why the Low Countries Became the Birthplace of Newspaper Advertising
The first newspaper advertisements did not emerge as fully developed examples of modern commercial persuasion.
They evolved from printed announcements, book notices and the promotional activities of early newspaper publishers.
The Dutch-speaking Low Countries played a decisive role in this process.
Around 1620, newspapers in Antwerp and Amsterdam began carrying some of the earliest surviving advertising-like announcements.
The Nieuwe Tijdinghen and Tijdinghen uyt verscheyde Quartieren are particularly important to this history.
The development continued during the 1620s.
Publisher announcements were followed by more clearly separated advertisements and promotions placed by independent businesses.
Books and maps initially dominated, but the range of advertised products and services gradually expanded.
The English advertisement of 1647 belongs to the early history of newspaper advertising in Britain, but it was not the first known example internationally.
The enduring innovation was the use of a regularly published news medium to connect commercial suppliers with an established readership.
This created a new relationship between information, attention and economic exchange.
The history of newspaper advertising therefore begins not with a famous consumer brand or an elaborate campaign, but with modest announcements for books, maps and other printed products.
Those announcements helped establish one of the most influential commercial communication systems in modern history.
References
De Gids (1949) ‘Wanneer verscheen de eerste krant?’, De Gids, 112. Available at: https://www.dbnl.org/tekst/_gid001194901_01/_gid001194901_01_0080.php (Accessed: 12 October 2026).
der Weduwen, A. and Pettegree, A. (eds.) (2020) News, Business and Public Information: Advertisements and Announcements in Dutch and Flemish Newspapers, 1620-1675. Leiden: Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004421097.
Encyclopaedia Britannica (1911) ‘Advertisement’, Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th edn. Available at: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclopaedia_Britannica/Advertisement (Accessed: 12 October 2026).
Pettegree, A. and der Weduwen, A. (2018) ‘News, Neighbours, and Commerce: Newspaper Advertising in the Information Culture of the Dutch Republic’, Early Modern Low Countries, 2(1), pp. 103-118. https://doi.org/10.18352/emlc.64.
University of Pennsylvania Libraries (n.d.) ‘Relation: Aller Fuernemmen und Gedenckwuerdigen Historien archives’, The Online Books Page. Available at: https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/serial?id=relation1605 (Accessed: 12 October 2026).
van Eeghen, I. H. (1978) De Amsterdamse boekhandel 1680-1725. Deel 5: De boekhandel van de Republiek 1572-1795. Amsterdam. Digitized edition available at: https://www.dbnl.org/tekst/eegh004amst06_01/eegh004amst06_01_0003.php (Accessed: 12 October 2026).
