•January 31, 2018•

By Tara McClellan McAndrew
For the Illinois Press Association

Like so much in Illinois, the origins of its newspapers were tied to politics and patronage.

This land was a wild, largely unpopulated, western territory when its first newspaper sprang up - the single-sheet Illinois Herald, published in 1814 in Kaskaskia. Its proprietor landed the job of printing territorial and national business through his friend, the territorial governor, according to the July 1918 Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society.

Some early newspapers were created to support or oppose a political candidate or issue, like the anti-slavery Edwardsville Advocate. Illinois newspapers remained political for decades in the 1800s, according to the ISHS Journal.

Publications faced many challenges: bad transportation, unreliable mail delivery and a lack of subscribers. As more settlers came to Illinois in the middle 1800s and transportation improved, newspapers fared better. The advent of railroads precipitated a newspaper boom.     Login or Subscribe to read the rest of this story.