gazette - A gazzetta, a Venetian coin of little value, gave rise to the phrase gazzetta de la novita, "halfpennyworth of news," which eventually gave us gazette.
silly season - Any slow news period characterized by trivial news or no news.
tidings - Probably comes from Old Norse tithindi, "news of events."
report - To report something is etymologically to "carry it back," from Latin reportare; the metaphorical sense of "bringing back news" also developed in Latin.