Abstrakt: | The article is a survey of several press titles from the middle of the 19th and the
beginning of the 20th centuries (hence the historical dimension), in which the author
was examining the methods used there to capture the reader’s attention, and to establish
a contact with the reader (hence the conversational dimension). It has appeared
that, out of the wide range of modern paratexts, only tables of contents, announcements
of press publications placed in a list, or close to the articles, and abbreviated
versions of the lead stories, visible in the graphically highlighted, by the editorial
board, escorts of the articles, could be found. The information, placed in mastheads,
and concerning the „premiums” and supplements attached to particular issues of a given
paper, has been qualified as symptoms of a certain form of the editors’ dialogue with
the readers. In that period, no announcements, as an autonomous press genre, or typologically
diversified lead stories yet existed. |