Other than newspapers, it required that all pamphlets, legal documents, commercial bills, advertisements, and other papers issued the tax.

[12] The tax was implemented with the stated intention of raising funds for the English state lottery, to monitor the circulation of newspapers and other periodicals, and to restrict publication of writing intended to "excite hatred and contempt of the Government and holy religion".

[11] All periodicals were already required by law to state the address and name of the owner, making taxation easily enforced on publishers, and allowing the government to see where legally printed publications were coming from.

According to English writer Samuel Johnson, "A news-writer is a man without virtue who writes lies at home for his own profit.

To these compositions is required neither genius nor knowledge, neither industry nor sprightliness, but contempt of shame and indifference to truth are absolutely necessary.