The Staple of News, again like Devil is an Ass, was published separately in 1631 in folio format from the existing typesetting, by the bookseller Robert Allot – though it is unclear whether this was ever a commercial publication, or whether Jonson privately distributed copies of the play among friends, acquaintances, and admirers.
"[3] It has attracted scholarly attention for its satire on the newspaper and news agency business that was a recent and rapidly evolving innovation in Jonson's era.
The main plot, about Lady Pecunia and her suitors, derives from Plutus, while the language cabals draw upon The Clouds, Assemblywomen, and Thesmophoriazusae.
The anti-masque in that work contained a dialogue between a poet and a cook, which is one instance in the pattern of Jonsonian ridicule of his partner in creating masques, Inigo Jones.
This recycling of material from the poet-and-cook dialogue in Neptune's Triumph makes The Staple of News another instance in this pattern of mockery of Jones.
[7] The play begins with the entrance of the actor who speaks the Prologue – quickly followed by four audience members seeking seating on the stage.
(The practice of selling seats on the periphery of the stages in the private theatres of the era is exploited for commentary and comedy in a variety of plays, from Beaumont's The Knight of the Burning Pestle (1607) to Jonson's Magnetic Lady.)
They interrupt the Prologue with their comments, and continue this through the four entr'actes that Jonson calls "Intermeans" – a structure he would employ again in The Magnetic Lady.
Cymbal, the manager (a caricature of Nathaniel Butter, pioneer of English newspapers), gives them a tour of the facility and explains its operation.
The members of this heterogeneous company – a sea captain, a poet, a doctor, and a courtier – have all gone bankrupt and now devote themselves to insulting and jeering at others, raising their practice to a pretended art form.
Pennyboy Senior attempts to enter Pecunia's good graces by conniving with her servants, Broker the gentleman usher and Lick-finger the cook.