The newspaper was circulated not only in Manchester and neighbouring Salford but also more widely throughout the towns of Lancashire and Cheshire.
It focused largely on commercial and local issues such as meetings of the town council and proceedings in the law courts, but it also included some more general news and book reviews.
[1] The journalist Charles Hadfield edited the paper from 1865 until 1867, and remained a contributor for two or three years after giving up that role,[2] but by 1871 the newspaper was struggling.
Its fortunes were reversed by the appointment of John Howard Nodal as editor, and the content soon began to reflect his wide-ranging interest in the work being carried out locally in the fields of science, literature, and language.
Two of the sections he introduced into the newspaper, "City News Notes and Queries"[a] and "Outdoor Notes: a Journal of Natural History and Out-Door Observation" – both of which he edited himself – evolved to become independent publications.