Before literacy, the only way to reach a population was to pay someone to shout.
The town crier was a public official appointed by a local authority to make proclamations, announce news, and read edicts aloud in streets and marketplaces.1 In medieval England, where the majority of the population could not read, the crier served as the primary channel through which governmental and commercial information reached ordinary people.
The office predates English history. Ancient Greek cities employed heralds, and Roman towns had praecones who made public announcements.1 The English tradition dates to at least the Norman Conquest, when William the Conqueror used criers to communicate new laws to a largely illiterate population.
Criers typically rang a bell or sounded a horn to gather attention, then began with the phrase "Oyez, oyez, oyez," from the Anglo-Norman for "hear ye."2 Their announcements covered tax deadlines, market regulations, royal decrees, news of wars, and local ordinances. Harming a town crier was considered treason, because the crier spoke with the authority of the crown.1
The role was one of the earliest forms of official, compensated communication work.
The spread of printing in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries gradually reduced the crier's importance, though the office persisted in some communities into the twentieth century. Several English and Australian towns still maintain ceremonial town criers.2
The Town Hall Meeting (corporate) adopted a similar form, the one-to-many announcement delivered in person, but stripped it of any reciprocal authority. The town crier spoke for the crown to the people. The corporate town hall speaks for management to employees.
The Ancient and Honourable Guild of Town Criers, established in England, holds annual competitions in which criers are judged on the power of their voice, the clarity of their diction, and the authority of their bearing.2