The editor of the Literary News sets out the premise for establishing his journal. He is particularly concerned with 'the proper objects of reading, or rather, what are the principles on which which our choice of books should be governed'. While not de-crying the reading of novels, the editor argues that amusement should not 'at all times constitute the whole of our literary recreation'. The editor also makes it plain that the pages of the Literary News will be fit reading for women.
The editor writes that Arts and Sciences will 'receive our attention ... We shall not deluge our pages with poetry, nor admit any verses which do not contain something more useful and interesting than the sickly sentimentalism of love-lorn striplings, or Byronic misanthropes. Biography will form a feature in our work, but only for the purpose of recording examples worthy of imitation ... Upon the subject of "Temperance Societies" we shall have much to say.'
