A decade before world wide web let alone email was even invented, Usenet was intended as an inter-computer communication system that could support news contributions from anybody, a multiuser "bulletin board." Back then news was important class information and department announcements.

When the system spilled from one university to the rest of the world, news were no longer mere announcements, it was anything anyone cares to post, read and discuss under the sun, with each discussions categorized in groups. So newsgroups came into existence. Later on, when uploading attachments to newsgroups became possible, Usenet content were no longer limited to text only files, people could post and upload anything in multi-media format, which was when Usenet's function outgrew its original intention as a public news bulletin board.

But old habits die hard, today all Usenet content are still indiscriminately referred to as news.