Maybe very late game or in the epilogue it could be the kind of religion a civilization on one of the other continents developed? 
Distant friends and trade partners right?
There are imperfect solutions, this article touches on some of them.
But for spreading news, limited printing press (which already exists) plus a postal system, even if it is just the pony express, yes finally a use for horses other than eating them, will allow for distribution of a limited number of broadsheets that can be posted to town message boards and maybe a very limited number of individual recipients and as long as the education system is in transition the old-fashioned town criers can be kept on to shout the news out loud too.