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Usage Notes
Unlike the newspapers of today, many nineteenth-century newspapers, particularly the earliest ones, did not have breaking news items on the front pages; news stories would be added to the inside to accommodate later submissions, while the front page would be designed in advance. When El Universal was introduced in Mexico in 1888, it made the revolutionary decision of putting the news section on the front page. In general, newspapers were contained in wrappers that were made up of advertisements, so the external pages would not indicate the content. As such, knowing the situation of an article within a paper reveals something about the structure of that newspaper. In addition, some newspapers were made up of only one foldout sheet.
Examples:
“Like The Daily Courant, The Observator and The Flying Post, it was printed in double columns on both sides of a single folio sheet of paper; and it came out, like The Evening Post, The Post Boy and The Review, three times a week–on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.” [Bateson, 155]
“The differences between these editions and the original tri-weekly sheet are not limited to the differences of appearance.” [Bateson, 155]
“They were not appended to any of the material in the original folio sheets, and although the newspaper continued publication to 1752 there were no further reprint volumes.” [Lockwood, 91]