Planned as light reading by William Ainsworth, who oversaw the New Monthly Magazine after 1845, Ainsworth's press coverage had an international flavor.

1. [Ainsworth, W. H.]. “Preliminary Address.” 1 (1842): i–iv.

Pledged that Ainsworth's, with “real responsibility in literary hands,” would “give greater freedom to writers.” Papers with “bold and original inquiry” and without politics and “scandal” would evidence that Ainsworth's goals were “a higher tone of literary speculation” and “a more steadfast moral endeavour.”

2. Cruikshank, George. “A Few Words to the Public about Richard Bentley.” 1 (1842): verso, i.

Cruikshank denied that he was the illustrator of Bentley's Miscellany but acknowledged that it had one of his etchings every month and promoted his nephew, an engraver, as an illustrator.

3. [Ainsworth, W. H.]. “To the Subscribers to Ainsworth's Magazine.” 1 (1842): recto, i.

Justified a price rise to two shillings to pay for more engravings as articles increased. Sales were “large,” and press approval of the magazine was “unequivocal and emphatic.”

4. [Ainsworth, W. H.]. “To Our Readers.” 2 (1842): i–ii.

Excused a switch to smaller typeface, which writers and readers disliked, because commissioned articles were so numerous.

5. “A Paper on Puffing.” 2 (1842): 42–47.

Classed many current book reviews as “preliminary,” “negative,” “mysterious,” “deprecatory” or “pugnacious,” unfortunate because the ‘reading,’ not ‘thinking’ public adopted press opinion. Evening papers “boldly fling off every trammel of respectability and truth.”