 The Ripper murders mark an important watershed in the treatment of crime by journalists . Jack the Ripper was not the first serial killer , but his case was the first to create a worldwide media frenzy . Tax reforms in the 1850s had enabled the publication of inexpensive newspapers with wider circulation . These mushroomed later in the Victorian era to include mass @-@ circulation newspapers as cheap as a halfpenny , along with popular magazines such as The Illustrated Police News which made the Ripper the beneficiary of previously unparalleled publicity . 
