The Voorlemsche Courant is the most popular newspaper operating in and around Voorlem. Though it hasn't existed for long, it has driven out many competitors and continues to tell the latest stories and tales from nearby and afar.
The Beginnings
The earliest forms of newspaper were pamphlet-like pieces of paper, hand-written or pressed on one side. These only mentioned news from abroad to appease to merchants and looked very chaotic as the writers wrote whatever would fit. A template was something they hadn't heard of.
In 1618, however, the Courante uyt Angellande, Sweyden & b. (Gazette from England, Sweden & b.) presented itself as the first Dutch newspaper. With headers, paragraphs and a line dividing articles it started many features which modern newspapers still use. A strange sight at first, but the merchants quickly warmed up to it. This resulted in a newspaper revolution in 1625, when many small newspapers were created all across the country using the format established by the Courante. These were a mild success, although they often covered the same news as others but written differently, they simply distributed their newspapers in a different town if they didn't make enough profit.
The Golden Age
Though some small newspapers could survive by distributing in places with the least competition, this wasn't viable or profitable for plenty of others. As an alternative, these newspapers started merging together. With more manpower, more presses and more territory, the small newspapers swiftly grew into medium sized newspapers, gaining a second page of news. The earliest known example of this is the Opregte Zondaegse Courant (Honest Sunday Gazette) which operated around Dokmuiden and Seest as early as 1672. Many other newspapers followed this example soon. Not much later Voorlem had access to three different newspapers coming from various directions.
The medium and small newspapers found a balance and started the golden age of newspapers, with little to no changes happening for 80 years.
Reformations
As various cities and towns developed and grew bigger, they also considered themselves more and more important. Rossum decided that it was above being dependent on various news sources and created a private newspaper in 1752. As it was funded by the major, this big newspaper was able to gather news much quicker than other newspapers at the time and attracted many merchants and travelers. The other cities on the shoreline, Zand op 't Zee and Dokmuiden created their own private newspaper shortly after, forcing all medium newspapers to travel further south. Voorlem and the other cities didn't deem it necessary to pour money into creating their own newspaper as they now had an abundance to choose from.
In the years after, the medium newspapers tried various things to keep up with the popularity of the big newspapers on the shores. Drawn stories, trivia, contests and much more methods were tried, some of which backfired as the big newspapers started using those methods too. It wasn't until the early 1850's that they came up with a method which would majorly affect newspapers. As these newspapers had trouble collecting news from abroad, they started writing articles about the region they operated in. Once more they were able to compete with the big newspapers from the cities, which only had foreign news for merchants and travelers.
The norm of 'only write about what happens abroad' was gone and people went crazy and started a second newspaper revolution. In the mid to late 1850's, newspapers about all sorts of topics were created. Newspapers dedicated entirely to sports, the culinary arts, royalty or even fashion popped up left and right, with wildly varying success. These left their mark as topic-specific newspapers would be created all the way into the 1880's.
Modern Times
In 1877, a small but fancy private club of railway fanatics made their own newspaper called Het Spoor (The rails) to read about topics they enjoyed and to find out which railway stocks to invest in. It became one of many small newspapers present in Voorlem, which now enjoyed it's central position on the map as unique newspapers were brought in from all directions.
Voorlem and the towns and cities around it enjoyed the newspapers for many years, yet many newspapers disappeared due to the Great and Second World Wars. The surviving few, such as Het Spoor and the Rossumer, decided to merge together. This decision was mostly out of necessity as funding was spent on restoration efforts. All the best equipment was collected and moved to the old head office of Het Spoor in Voorlem, roughly in the middle of where everyone operated. All equipment not deemed absolutely necessary was sold and many employees fired to make some profit and reduce costs. It was collectively decided that choosing a name now would be best, to lighten the mood after the mass-firing. It was then that they decided on the name we all know and love: Voorlemsche Courant.
It took a while for a decision to be made on who would be leading the company; every old CEO thought it would be best if they got put in charge here. After a dozen arguments and some unpleasant word exchanges it was decided that L. Davids, who previously owned a medium newspaper which operated around Peperga and Kesteren, was the most suitable candidate. To keep people content, Davids decided that the newspaper would keep elements from most old ones. Article topics from some, template parts from another. As such, when the first edition released, the frontpage featured an article heavily reminiscent of the old Het Spoor.
Under the lead of Davids, the Voorlemsche Courant steadily grew to become the most popular newspaper in and around Voorlem.