Why was the Daily Punctilio stacked outside the mill?

[Dante]

It's unlikely that they were originally intended to be the archives of The Daily Punctilio, a newspaper which wouldn't appear for another three volumes; going back and identifying them as such was, I think, a particularly whimsical connection for the U.A. to draw, almost more like a joke on the very act of retroactive continuity than a sincere connection. As to why, in-universe, they were there? Mismanagement by a town under Sir's effective authority, perhaps, or an attempt at hiding in plain sight.

[Foxy]

The hiding in plain sight explanation was I thought what TUA said was going on. I have some issues with this, because what if it rains??? Then the archives will be ruined. Unless LSLM was in the middle of a desert, but I'm pretty sure that's untrue because it is surrounded by a "lovely" forest. The only explanation I can think of is everyone knows how useless TDP is, so they are just littering by putting their old newspapers along the road of a ghost town. But did TDP used to be a useful newspaper?

[Optimism is my Phil-osophy]

TDP was once a safe haven for good VFD agents. Prior to the Olaf Schism, when Jacques and Lemony worked there undercover, they sent secret and non-secret messages to every organization through the TDP pages. I think this is very evident in Jacques's letter to Lemony on LSTUA. And in TBL, Lemony makes it clear that there were too many VFD agents infiltrated into TDP. Including R worked there before her mother died. So TDP copies of this era are very valuable.

[Dante]

Sept 23, 2019 11:35:21 GMT -5 Foxy said:

But did TDP used to be a useful newspaper?

There is evidence that they have had better moments, such as those times when the Snicket siblings contributed articles and V.F.D. had more of an influence on its staffing in general.