Serial publication was the engine that drove the generalized expansion of print through London and the nation during the long eighteenth century. This chapter offers a short sequence of temporal snapshots within which some of the variables in the history of the newspaper during this long period can be indicated. The years chosen, 1720, 1775 and 1830, simply offer an evenly spaced sequence from which it is possible to take stock of the changes that crystallized around them. This is a supply-side view with the emphasis placed on the newspaper as a part of the output of the general trade in print. The year 1830 was pivotal in the history of the London newspapers. Change had begun, but the elements that linked the publications of 1720, 1775 and 1830 were probably stronger than the differences. In organisation, scale of production and character of content and readership, the main London newspapers stood in a recognizable evolutionary relationship to each other.