The Financing of Political Newspaper Commentary in Late Eighteenth-Century England

Abstract

This article explores the financing of the newspaper content most closely identified with political commentary in the second half of the eighteenth century: the 'letters to the editor'. Based on an important but largely unnoticed paragraph from John Trusler's London Adviser and Guide, and a published excerpt from the account books of the Morning Herald, it argues that, while newspaper proprietors paid correspondents primarily for news and miscellany, they could also pay for letters of commentary (or publish them free of charge), if these were particularly well written and on topics of notable public interest. Importantly, however, they would also charge authors wishing to disseminate political texts, especially if these promulgated the commercial or political interests of individuals or larger interest groups.