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Post- och Inrikes Tidningar
Sweden, 1645
The strongest claim to the title of oldest newspaper still published. It began in 1645 as Ordinari Post Tijdender, launched on the state's initiative under Queen Christina and her chancellor Axel Oxenstierna. King Gustav III later gave the Swedish Academy the right to publish it, and Guinness lists it as the oldest existing weekly newspaper.
The catch is what it publishes now. Its paper edition ended at the start of 2007, and it lives on as an online official journal of public notices, published through the Swedish Companies Registration Office. Readers expecting headlines will find bankruptcies and company announcements instead, which is exactly what continuity looks like for a government paper.
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Haarlems Dagblad
Netherlands, 1656 (as Weeckelycke Courante van Europa)
The Haarlem lineage starts in 1656 with a weekly published by Abraham Casteleyn and his wife Margaretha van Bancken, later known as the Oprechte Haerlemse Courant. During the German occupation in the Second World War the Courant was forced to merge with Haarlems Dagblad, and that merged paper claims to be the oldest newspaper in the world still in printed circulation.
Treat that claim as a family tree rather than a single unbroken masthead. Today it is a regional daily for Haarlem, owned by the Belgian group Mediahuis.
More about Haarlems Dagblad3
Gazzetta di Mantova
Italy, 1664
If the test is the same title, still printed and still carrying general news, Mantua's paper has a very strong case. It is widely described as the oldest newspaper still issued under its original name, and Italy marked its 350th anniversary in 2014 with a postage stamp showing the oldest surviving copy, which is kept in the state archive in Modena.
It remains a working local daily in print and online, so a current issue is as easy to pick up as a historic one is hard to find.
More about Gazzetta di Mantova4
The London Gazette
United Kingdom, 1665 (as The Oxford Gazette)
Born of the Great Plague. When the plague drove Charles II and his court out of London to the relative safety of Oxford, the Oxford Gazette appeared in November 1665, and when the court returned to the capital it became the London Gazette.
It is an official journal of record rather than a paper for browsing: today it is published by TSO on behalf of The National Archives and carries statutory, business and state notices. For anyone tracing British history through print, its back issues form a thread that runs from Restoration England to the present.
More about The London Gazette5
Berrow's Worcester Journal
England, traced to 1690 (as the Worcester Post-Man)
Worcester's paper bills itself as the oldest surviving newspaper in the world. By its own account it descends from the Worcester Post-Man, which Stephen Bryan founded in 1690 and published only irregularly at first, so read the date as the paper's proud claim rather than a settled fact.
Harvey Berrow bought the paper in 1748, and from 1753 it carried his name. It became a free paper in 1987 and is still published today as a weekly tabloid owned by Newsquest, delivered free across central and southern Worcestershire and also offered as a free online edition.
More about Berrow's Worcester Journal6
Wiener Zeitung
Austria, 1703 (as the Wiennerisches Diarium)
Launched on August 8, 1703, under the Habsburgs, the Vienna paper was for generations counted the oldest daily still in print. That run ended on June 30, 2023, after a law change cut the revenue it earned from printing official company notices. The front page of its last daily print edition summed it up as 320 years, 12 presidents, 10 emperors, 2 republics, 1 newspaper.
It has not closed. The Wiener Zeitung carries on mainly online, with a much smaller editorial team and occasional print magazines, which makes it a good example of how the oldest papers survive: by changing form rather than disappearing.
More about Wiener Zeitung7
Hildesheimer Allgemeine Zeitung
Germany, 1705 (as the Hildesheimer Relations-Courier)
First published on June 24, 1705, this Lower Saxony daily is regarded as the oldest surviving newspaper in Germany. When the Wiener Zeitung gave up daily print in 2023, it named Hildesheim as the paper that takes over its old standing among general dailies still on paper.
It is a regional title rather than a national voice, which is part of its appeal for anyone who likes local history: more than three centuries of one town's news, still printed and now online as well.
More about Hildesheimer Allgemeine Zeitung8
Lloyd's List
United Kingdom, 1734
A newspaper that grew out of a coffee house. Lloyd's List was providing weekly shipping news in London by 1734, a service begun by Edward Lloyd, the proprietor of Lloyd's Coffee House. The picture shows the City of London plaque marking the coffee house's site, not the paper itself.
Its claim to be the oldest continuously published newspaper is disputed, since several older titles on this list survive. What is not disputed is the change of form: the final print issue, number 60,850, came out in December 2013, and it has been a constantly updated digital service for the shipping trade ever since. It suits readers interested in trade and maritime history more than general news.
More about Lloyd's List9
News Letter
Northern Ireland, 1737
Belfast's first newspaper began after Francis Joy came by a small printing press in settlement of a debt, and it was first printed in Joy's Entry, a narrow alley in the city center. It is generally counted the oldest English-language general daily still in publication, a narrower and more defensible claim than outright oldest.
One detail stands out for history lovers: it is among the few papers still in business that reported the American Declaration of Independence, in an edition from late August 1776. Today it is a Monday to Saturday tabloid.
More about News Letter10
The Press and Journal
Scotland, 1747 (as Aberdeen's Journal)
First published as a weekly, Aberdeen's Journal, on December 29, 1747, the paper became the Aberdeen Journal a year later and only turned daily in 1876. That history is why it can fairly call itself Scotland's oldest daily newspaper while being far older than its daily run.
It serves the north and the Highlands from Aberdeen, under D. C. Thomson of Dundee since 2006, and has been a compact rather than a broadsheet since 2012. For a reader who wants a regional paper with deep roots outside the big capitals, it is the natural Scottish pick.
More about The Press and Journal11
Berlingske
Denmark, 1749 (as Kjøbenhavnske Danske Post-Tidender)
The first issue appeared on January 3, 1749, printed by Ernst Henrich Berling, Denmark's royal book printer, whose family name the paper still carries. It held the right to print official government news until 1903.
Berlingske is the oldest continually operating newspaper in Denmark, and it is still a national daily, in compact format since 2006. Next to the Swedish gazette at the top of this list, it shows the other Scandinavian route to longevity: a private paper that grew into a national voice.
More about Berlingske12
Quebec Chronicle-Telegraph
Canada, 1764 (as the Quebec Gazette)
Founded by William Brown on June 21, 1764, a few months before the Hartford Courant, this paper claims to be the oldest newspaper in North America. The Courant disputes it, pointing out that the Quebec paper briefly stopped during the 1775 Siege of Quebec, and that argument has never been settled to everyone's satisfaction.
What it can defend is being the oldest surviving newspaper in Canada still publishing news. Since 1972 it has been an English-language weekly, sized for Quebec City's small English-speaking community, which makes it one of the most modest and most charming survivors here.
More about Quebec Chronicle-Telegraph13
Hartford Courant
United States, 1764 (as The Connecticut Courant)
America's oldest continuously published newspaper began as a weekly on October 29, 1764, and its founder, Thomas Green, kept it afloat by selling clothing, stationery, hardware and spices from a shop out front. A U.S. Senate resolution recognizes its standing as the oldest continuously published newspaper in the country.
Its pages are a tour of early American history: the full text of the Declaration of Independence ran in the July 15, 1776, edition, George Washington advertised to lease part of his Mount Vernon land, and Mark Twain tried to buy stock and was turned down. It became a daily in 1837 and still publishes in print and online.
More about Hartford Courant14
Neue Zürcher Zeitung
Switzerland, 1780 (as the Zürcher Zeitung)
The first issue appeared on January 12, 1780, edited by the Swiss painter and poet Salomon Gessner, an unusually literary start for a paper that became a byword for sober seriousness. It took the name Neue Zürcher Zeitung in 1821.
The NZZ is regarded as the Swiss-German newspaper of record and a high-quality paper. Of the old titles here, it is the one most likely to be found on a serious reader's desk today rather than in an archive box.
More about Neue Zürcher Zeitung15
The Times
United Kingdom, 1785 (as The Daily Universal Register)
John Walter launched it on January 1, 1785, under a name nobody remembers, and changed the title to The Times after 940 editions, on January 1, 1788. It is the paper that gave the world the Times New Roman typeface, first used in its pages in October 1932.
It is younger than several regional papers on this list, but few newspapers anywhere are so closely tied to the idea of a paper of record. Today it is published by Times Media, part of News UK, in print and online alongside its sister paper, The Sunday Times.
More about The Times16
The Observer
United Kingdom, 1791
First published in 1791, The Observer is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper, which gives it a place here that no daily can take. For 32 years it was the Sunday sister of The Guardian, until Tortoise Media took it over in April 2025.
Its first edition under the new owners came out on April 27, 2025, and its website has since been relaunched with a paywall and an app. Anyone who reads it on a Sunday morning is keeping up a habit that is more than 230 years old.
More about The Observer17
New York Post
United States, 1801 (as the New-York Evening Post)
Alexander Hamilton founded it in the fall of 1801 with about $10,000, which makes today's brash Manhattan tabloid one of the few newspapers with a founding father on its birth certificate. It began as a broadsheet and is now a News Corp tabloid.
The Post calls itself the oldest continuously published daily in the United States, but that claim comes with a footnote: it halted during strikes in 1958 and 1978, so The Providence Journal is generally given the title instead. Read it here for its founder and its staying power, not for a clean record.
More about New York Post18
Bombay Samachar
India, 1822
First published on July 1, 1822, by Fardunjee Marzban, a Parsi scholar and priest, the Bombay Samachar is described as the oldest continuously published newspaper in Asia. It started as a weekly, came out twice a week from 1832 and later became a daily.
It is a Gujarati paper first, with English alongside, and has been in the hands of the Cama family since 1933. For anyone who thinks of old newspapers as a European habit, this is the entry that corrects the picture, still a daily broadsheet in Mumbai.
More about Bombay Samachar19
Diário de Pernambuco
Brazil, 1825
Recife's paper began publication on November 7, 1825, only three years after Brazilian independence, and it is counted the oldest daily in continuous circulation in Latin America and the oldest newspaper in the Portuguese language still circulating.
It marked its bicentenary in November 2025 and still sells in print as well as online. In October 2026 readers formed a line about 150 meters long outside its Recife offices to buy a reprint of its issue on the presidential runoff, a reminder that a printed front page still matters there.
More about Diário de Pernambuco20
Le Figaro
France, 1826
It began on January 15, 1826, as a satirical weekly that took its name and motto from Beaumarchais's play The Marriage of Figaro, and only became a daily in 1866. Le Figaro is the oldest national newspaper in France.
Its most famous scoop was not news at all: on February 20, 1909, it printed Filippo Tommaso Marinetti's manifesto that launched Futurism, putting an art movement into a Paris daily. Owned by the Dassault Group since 2004, it remains a major national paper in print and online.
More about Le Figaro21
El Mercurio de Valparaíso
Chile, 1827
Founded in the port city of Valparaíso on September 12, 1827, this is the oldest continuously circulating periodical in the Spanish language to be published under the same name. That careful wording matters: the claim rests on keeping both its masthead and an unbroken run.
It should not be confused with El Mercurio of Santiago, a national paper with a similar name that was launched in 1900 by the Valparaíso paper's owners. For Spanish-language newspaper history, Valparaíso's Mercurio is the place to start.
More about El Mercurio de Valparaíso22
The Sydney Morning Herald
Australia, 1831 (as The Sydney Herald)
Three former staff of the Sydney Gazette started it, and its first edition appeared on April 18, 1831, when Sydney was still a young colonial town. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper in Australia.
Unlike several survivors on this list, it is still a big, busy daily: a compact print edition Monday to Saturday, The Sun-Herald on Sundays, and a website and app every day, under Nine Entertainment since 2018. It is a clear example of an old paper that never shrank into a niche.
More about The Sydney Morning Herald23
The Gleaner
Jamaica, 1834
Two brothers, Jacob and Joshua de Cordova, founded it in Kingston on September 13, 1834, weeks after Britain's Slavery Abolition Act came into force across its colonies. Long known as The Daily Gleaner, it took its present name in 1992.
It is the Caribbean's standout survivor among newspapers, a national morning broadsheet still printed six days a week. It is sometimes called the oldest continuously published paper in the Western Hemisphere, a claim that sits uneasily beside Hartford and Quebec, so value it instead as the senior paper of its region.
More about The Gleaner24
The Times of India
India, 1838 (as The Bombay Times and Journal of Commerce)
The first edition appeared on November 3, 1838, became a daily in 1850, and took the name The Times of India in 1861 under its editor Robert Knight. It is the oldest English-language newspaper in India and the second-oldest Indian newspaper still in circulation, after the Bombay Samachar.
Its other distinction is scale: it is one of India's biggest-selling newspapers. Published by Bennett, Coleman & Co., it is the entry that shows an old title can also be a very big one.
More about The Times of India
