Town Topics: The Journal of Society was a magazine published in New York City by William d'Alton Mann[1] and others from 1879 to 1937 (v. 1-105, no.
Under Mann, however, it ripened into a scandal sheet, faithfully reporting high-society peccadilloes and often identifying perpetrators by name.
It was possible for the wealthy public figures to delay or bury a story by buying some advertising in the newspaper.
The main method it used was to print an innocuous article with the name of the individual on which it had a piece of hot gossip.
By running the article giving identification and the scandal separately it was possible for Mann to avoid liability for extortion, libel and slander.