The Penny Illustrated Paper was a cheap (1d.) illustrated weekly newspaper, which ran from 1861 to 1913.
Illustrated weekly newspapers had been pioneered by the Illustrated London News (published from 1842, costing fivepence): its imitators included the Pictorial Times (1843-8), and - after the 1855 repeal of the Stamp Act - the Illustrated Times. With the abolition of paper duty in 1861 it was possible to envisage an even cheaper mass-circulation illustrated weekly. The first issue, 12 October 1861, announced itself confidently under the masthead "PENNY ILLUSTRATED PAPER: With All the News of the Week": "A new era opens upon the people. In producing a paper for the million, let us plainly say, we want be esteemed the friend of the people... A new era is opened to us by the Repeal of the Paper Duties"[1]
The paper was apparently initially the charge of Ebenezer Farrington,[2] but the wife and sons of the recently deceased Herbert Ingram, proprietors of the Illustrated London News - also seem to have been behind the venture.[1]