The book was conceived as the prosthetic limb of a 2003 essay compilation entitled New Media: 1740-1915 (Gitelman & Pingree, 2003), of which Gitelman was co-editor. In her preface to Always Already New, she expresses her initial desire to expand on developing methods of new media history in a consistent, comprehensive single-authored text, inspired by concepts and theories encountered editing chapters of New Media.