In the american colonies, newspapers took second place to news gathered by social interaction because he english governors banned all books and newspapers in an attempt to keep the colonists from saying anything unfavorable about them censorship by the english governors was common, meaning that newspapers were scarce or did not contain much information they did not. newspapers actually became incredibly popular in 1690 with the printing of the first newspaper. colonists most often got their news this way due to the english governors restricting their freedom to gather in public