Broadsheet

I want to copy all the bits printed in the broadsheet (not just Beth's letters but the funny headlines about Liolesa's nerves of steel post-assassination-attempt) into one place for later reference, so here this is!

History

"Newspapers were a new invention; they hadn’t existed when he’d been introduced at court, and he’d left before they gained any acceptance. He thought they’d begun seeing some use shortly after his betrothed’s presentation to Liolesa as Nuera’s heir… and even now, they remained newfangled. Printing presses had not yet turned their equipment to the manufacture of books, which remained the province of artisans, and it was unlikely they ever would now that the Alliance had arrived en force."

The broadsheet is run out of Argent with equipment supplied by Liolesa and purchased in the Alliance. The business is owned by one of the members of the city's middle class, Darvel Bet Jesa, who employs two copywriters, his sister, Tanyth, and a cousin of one of the palace servants, Eroan Fin Jesa. The news for the broadsheet is provided by a variety of sources:

• "press releases" from the secretaries of noble Houses at the capital
• gossip from various palace servants, solicited or submitted (personally or anonymously via a slot into the broadsheet's place of business)
• investigative journalism and interviews, conducted by Tanyth or Eroan, either prior to or after events
• occasional tips from anonymous sources (invariably a noble wanting to get someone else into the paper)
• letters from readers

Liolesa personally saw to the broadsheet's set-up, but after arranging for the equipment she has never--to Darvel's knowledge--contacted the broadsheet, or asked them to publish anything on her behalf. Any official items she wants published she sends through her secretary or chancellor. She does, however, have unofficial channels she uses to feed the broadsheet, but no one's aware that she's doing it, except Maia.

Maia later becomes a correspondent for the broadsheet, in the form of one of its "anonymous sources."

Mechanics

This is where we talk about circulation.

The broadsheet is written in Universal, and later is digitized for dissemination throughout the world, via Sediryl's wiring of the various villages.

Content

Articles

• EMPRESS DISPATCHES ASSASSIN BY HER OWN HAND DURING NOCTURNAL ASSAULT: "A source close to the Empress" may or may not have reported that the assassin, after climbing through the window into the Empress's bedchamber, met his end writhing on her bed as she stabbed him repeatedly, and then set her wolves on him, who proceeded to "eat him, possibly before expiry."

Photos/Drawings

• Liolesa at her desk, sipping tea while studying her correspondence with typical sangfroid, captioned: "NOTHING DISTURBS THE APPETITE OF THE STEELY EMPRESS OF THE ELDRITCH PEOPLE."