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Language Variants
Seitenzahl der Ausgabe; Aantal pagina’s van aflevering; Numeron sanamäärä.
Usage Notes
Advances in printing made it cheaper to print more pages, and this is reflected in the growing length of issues throughout the nineteenth century. However, there were stark differences in issue length between different genres of publications; daily publications were often shorter than weekly or monthly titles and provincial papers were often shorter than metropolitan or national publications. Issue length might have also been temporarily reduced in response to shortages of paper or ink, or if the publisher was suffering financial hardship, as was the case of the Caledonian Mercury near the end of its run.
Examples:
Front page, including page count of the issue, of The Sydney Morning Herald, 11 August 1888. Trove.
“Its four pages carried classified advertisements and London Gazette announcements, shipping news, London, foreign and local news, Parliamentary reports, prices and advertising.” [DNCJ, WHF, 250]
“All he cared for, in those days of heavily-taxed paper […] was that a volume of a given number of pages should not cost more than a certain sum.” [Vizetelly, 1.89]
“On 1 October 1887 the paper switched to a smaller format, halving in size to a tabloid and doubling the number of pages to 16 at the same time.” [DNCJ, MaT, 572]
“In the 19th century newspapers not only the number of pages increases significantly but several new elements appear, e.g. pages are structured into several columns, the usage of sections, articles, advertisements, classified advertisements, becomes more sophisticated and complex.” [Europeana Newspapers, 24]