ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the generic features of the periodical press and demonstrates their constitutive role in structuring content and conveying it to readers. When considering the periodical as genre, figures such as the author do not offer a suitable organizing principle; rather, the complex relationships that underpin periodical publication force editors to attend to the object as a whole. Whereas authors are conventionally responsible for their words, editors both of nineteenth-century periodicals and twenty-first century digital editions must make those words into an object. This involves identifying content, organizing it, developing presentational tools, identifying users, and then making it available to them. As always, this must be achieved under the constraints of time and money. Editing is always located at this intersection between an existing object and a new object: negotiating the relationship between them is not simply about reproduction, but also about transformation.
