Prior to cameras, what we call paprazzi today were often simply considered reporters and journalists, working for newspapers of greater-or-lesser repute.

What we call tabloid news was known as "yellow journalism" in the early 1900s (and specifically to a newspaper war between New York city papers in the year 1900), consisting of often-fake or just plain misleading stories and drawings / sketches, designed to draw readers.

Prior to that, in North American and Europe, these newspapers were known as "scandal sheets" because that's precisely what they covered... scandals.

Going back even earlier, various independent people with their own printing presses would simply print out single page notes of salacious local news to sell to other citizens.

Go back more and, of course, we have the old handwritten "poison pen letters" and just plain gossip.

Some references: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/scandal+sheet http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_journalism England's scandal sheet papers: http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Scandal-sheets-long-history-of-dishing-dirt-2541768.php