Companions, Supplements, and the Proliferation of Print in the 1830s

This article focuses on the publication, content and form of Charles Knight’s Companion to the Newspaper (1833-37), and considers the meanings of ‘companion’ and other developing print forms in the context of the rise of cheap print in the 1830s. In the Companion, Knight attempts to develop a new kind of hybrid journal, combining the political dimension of the daily newspaper with the utilitarian nature of the ‘useful knowledge’ tract and packaged it in the form of a monthly periodical, beyond the reach of the stamp duty. However, the title was never stable, and my case study of the Companion explores overlapping networks of print, suggesting an ever-expanding, ever-innovating market in which ‘supplements’ and other print forms proliferate.