The rise of the newspapers was itself an aspect of the explosion in publishing which took place in the mid-seventeenth century

The rise of the newspapers was itself an aspect of the explosion in publishing which took place in the mid-seventeenth century. In the year 1500 just over fifty books were printed in England, in 1600 the number was 300, come 1648 more than 2,300 titles poured off the presses in a single year. Perhaps 30 per cent of all men and 10 per cent of all women could read, and over double those percentages in the capital, a readership now offered an addictive weekly news fix that involved them as never before in the turbulent goings-on of their kingdom.

A. Keay, The restless republic (2022), loc. 2,044