"A newspaper combines in it two elements. It is the old 'news-book' of the first years of  the long parliament, and it is, at the same time, a periodical issue  of short pamphlets on the current topics of the day. Its conductors  undertake to furnish their readers with the most recent and authentic  intelligence, digested and arranged so as to enable them with  scarcely any effort to understand the actual position of public  concerns. They undertake, at the same time, to supply an interesting  series of comments on passing events, tending to rectify the public  judgment of men and measures, and promote a rational and beneficial  management of public affairs" (Nowell-Smith, The House of Cassell 1848-1958, pp.19-20).