In the American colonies, newspapers took second place to news gathered by social interaction because, in those days information on public matter was scarce; information is usually spread by words of mouth and those information released to the public are usually controlled by those in power. Thus, newspapers usually contain information, which have been watered down or diluted to fit the public consumption.
The freedom of speech in the colonies was not a thing back then during the British rule in the colonies. So, you can understand the British wanting to keep their grip on the colonies thus the British governors usually restricted what could be printed in the newspaper and thus there wasn't that much information in the newspapers themselves and the newspapers were scarce.
