History of Newspaper Adverts

Newspaper adverts have been used since the late 1830's the first advert appeared in the french Newspaper La Presse. Newspapers introduced paid adverts so that they could lower prices of newspapers as a whole. Lower prices meant it could extend its readership and increase profits.

This is a coca cola advert from the late 19th Century, unlike newspaper adverts today the only text included in this ad is the company name and price. This ad doesn't try to convince people with text or slogans like the numerous ads we find day to day.

Painted portraits were still used in adverts as photography had just been introduced into to the newspaper industry, however this was an expensive technique to use so companies such as La Presse, and The Telegraph still used painted images.

By the 1930s painted images were changed to black and white photos, this was only possible due to technological advances in the production of photographs, this made it cheaper for newspaper companies to use.

More text was added into newspaper ads, slogans such as "Nothing is so Refreshing started to appear and the images were the main focus. Logos still appeared on adverts but were a lot small than the ads from the 1800s.

By the 21st century newspaper adverts started to decline in National newspapers due to advances in the Internet and TV channels such as Sky and ITV. Smaller companies such as The Metro and Express and Star still use newspaper advertising as major a income to keep the paper running. The most common advertisements to be found in these newspapers are more likely to be blockbusters in cinemas or exclusive television shows.