One of the reasons was that shinbun-nishiki-e handled realistic subject matters and carried not only nishiki-e prints which were created by eshi who were artistically highly evaluated such as Yoshiiku and Yoshitoshi.
題材が生々しく、また芳幾や芳年のような、美術的に評価の高い絵師による錦絵ばかりではなかったことも一因である。