A newspaper consists of just the same number of words, whether there be any news in it or not.

Fielding’s remark is a dry observation about the economics and habits of print culture: a paper must be “filled” to a fixed length regardless of whether anything genuinely noteworthy has occurred. The line implies that scarcity of real events does not reduce publication; instead, it encourages padding—repetition, speculation, moralizing, or manufactured controversy—to meet the expected word-count. Read more broadly, it critiques how a medium’s format and commercial routine can shape (and distort) what counts as “news,” privileging constant output over significance. The quip remains resonant as a warning about information systems that reward volume and regularity rather than truth or importance.