Abstract

This paper examines how Europe’s first pioneering popular daily manifested early tabloid properties. The focus is on female representation and readership in the origins of mass circulation, within a context of a new emphasis on marketing, distribution, spectacle and consumption. Quantitative content analysis is used for the launch year of 1863 and for1896 when the paper was riding high as a successful brand. Qualitative research reveals an overlap between literature and newspapers, provided by the serialised novel and by fictional writing techniques in crime coverage that reinforced dominant values by presenting spectacular examples of the transgression of social norms.