The first chapter, ‘Readers all over the world,’ deals with the first line of inquiry of the book and argues that the audiences of European illustrated newspapers were less national than has been previously assumed. It shows that the British Illustrated London News, the French l’Illustration, and the German Illustrirte Zeitung served readers far beyond the borders of the countries in which they were published, both in the colonies and other nations. Making full use of imperial postal regulations and new and fast railway and steamboat lines, the illustrated newspapers sent large numbers of copies to the far corners of the globe, reaching Australian, South-American, and even Chinese audiences. During the Great Exhibition of 1851, the Illustrated London News even launched a French and German edition.