From 1835 to 2010, Montenegro published more than 1,600 periodicals, over 600 of which were general or special interest newspapers, called novine or listovi. The terms list and novine are sometimes applied to journals as well, not just to newspapers, which makes it difficult to count newspapers throughout Montenegrin history. For the purposes of this introduction to the collection of Montenegrin newspapers held by the Library of Congress, we count as newspapers most novine and listovi, but the numbers on Montenegrin publishing given here should be considered estimates.

The first newspaper was Crnogorac, a weekly published in Cetinje 1871-73. During the first two years of its publication, 48 issues appeared, but in its final year, just six were published. The Library of Congress holds this title and its supplement Crnogorka in facsimile. Newspaper publishing in Montenegro experienced slow growth until after World War I, when it began to expand because of the continued development of professional journalism and the increase in literacy among the population. It grew much more quickly both during and after World War II, due to the need for news of the war, and for anti-occupation arguments and propaganda materials. The communist era saw steady growth in newspaper publishing. Although newspapers continue to account for a significant percentage of periodicals published, with almost 100 newspaper titles published today, only a few are major dailies. Most are more specialized in locale or subject. As a general rule, the Library of Congress did not start to systematically collect materials from Slavic, East, and Central European countries until World War II and after, and the Montenegrin newspaper holdings reflect this collection development policy. The Library of Congress holds only a handful of newspapers from Montenegro, including principal dailies from the communist era, two titles from the post-communist period, and a few from the 19th century. The Library has a current subscription to only one title,Vijesti, from Podgorica.

Major centers of Montenegrin newspaper publishing are the capital city Podgorica/Titograd, as well as the cities of Nikšić and Cetinje, the former capital. The largest collections of Montenegrin newspapers are in Montenegro and Serbia, with the preeminent collection held by the National Library "Đurđe Crnojević" in Cetinje.