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He also introduced the first tabloid —about half the size of a standard paper (15 × 23 inches [38 × 58 cm]). The first American tabloid was the New York Daily News , started by Joseph Medill Patterson and devoted to sex and sensationalism. Early in the 20th century, the number of American papers reached a peak . They declined in number thereafter, though total circulation rose. During the 1920s and ’30s competition for circulation continued, and the wide use of syndicated columnists and ready-to-use features, comic strips, crossword puzzles, and other amusements developed. The Thirty Years’ War (1618–48) set back incipient newspapers in Germany, and censorship in various forms was general throughout Europe. Sweden passed the first law guaranteeing freedom of the press in 1766. Newspapers in Hong Kong are known to follow a particular political stance, with most being either pro-Beijing or pro-democracy. Some newspaper s are completely neutral, or are oriented towards finance or rel...