Historedia
Episode 3 of 4

First Known Newspaper Editorial

When
December 9, 1793
Where
New York City
Part of
Founding of the American Minerva

Webster wrote the first known newspaper editorial in the first edition of the American Minerva in December 1793.

The first edition of the American Minerva, published December 9, 1793, contained what is described as the first known newspaper editorial, written by Webster himself. This placed the new daily at the forefront of an emerging editorial tradition in American newspapers from its very first issue.

Sources

  1. Noah Webster Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-26
  2. Commercial Advertiser Wikipedia, revision of 2026-07-06

Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.