The newspaper was first published in 1728 by Samuel Keimer and was the second newspaper to be published in the colonial Province of Pennsylvania under the name The Universal Instructor in all Arts and Sciences: and Pennsylvania Gazette, a reference to Keimer's intention to print out a page of Ephraim Chambers' Cyclopaedia, or Universal Dictionary of Arts and Sciences in each edition.

[1] On October 2, 1729, Samuel Keimer, the owner of The Gazette, fell into debt and before fleeing to Barbados sold the newspaper to Benjamin Franklin and his partner Hugh Meredith,[2][3][4][5] who shortened its name, as well as dropping Keimer's grandiose plan to print out the Cyclopaedia.

[7] On October 19, 1752,[8] Franklin published a third-person account of his pioneering kite experiment in The Pennsylvania Gazette, without mentioning that he himself had performed it.

[9] While the purpose of the publication was primarily for classified ads, merchants and individuals listed notices of employment, lost and found goods and items for sale, it also reprinted foreign news.

[14] There are three known copies of the original issue, which are held by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania and the Library Company of Philadelphia, both in Philadelphia, and the Wisconsin State Historical Society at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Madison, Wisconsin.