On this day, the British literary and society journal, ‘The Tatler’, was first published by Richard Steele, using the pen name ‘Isaac Bickerstaff Esquire’. The magazine represented a new approach to journalism, featuring cultivated essays on contemporary manners, and established the pattern that would be copied in several subsequent British classics. Steele’s intention (embodied in the title ‘The Tatler’) was to publish the news and gossip heard in various London coffeehouses while leaving the subject of politics to the newspapers. To assure complete coverage of local gossip, he placed a reporter in each of the city’s four most popular coffeehouses. The journal was published three times a week until 2nd January 1711.
So, they published that magazine for less than two years… If Richard had known the AI!
He was too far ahead of his time and too far behind ours!