Heard the news?

In the early 1700s, according to Andrew Marr's addictive account of British journalism, newspapers were pretty weird and wonderful, and often to be found skulking in that nebulous area between private and public news. 'Some, for instance, like Ichabod Dawk's News-Letter made a point of leaving some space blank for personal news, which could then be written in and posted on to friends and relatives in the country.' Imagine if one of the free London Tube papers clamouring for commuters' attention carried a blank page for personal news. A new incentive to read one of the discarded papers lining every Tube carriage? Free news, celebrity gossip oh, and if you want to know why the person sitting opposite is not talking to his next-door neighbour, turn to page 15. Or who third-from-the-left is going out with? Heard the latest about Ichabod Dawk's money-making scam? But then I suppose finding out in public someone's personal news is what loud mobile phone conversations on the train are all about.