The silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1909-1925, 1916-05-23
PAPER COST AND
NEWSPAPERS

1t is not news to newspaper readers
in any part of the world that newsprint
p has advanced by leaps and
bounds during the last eighteen months,
for have not the newspapers of the
world with one accord been telling their
readers about it with great regularity
in the period namedf In the United
States, land of big newspapers, the ad-
vance is felt by publishers, and felt
keenly, even though the times general
ly, viewed from the counting room, are
good. The cost of print paper has been
rising so steadily that loss on circula-
ton has been cutting deeply into the
profits on advertising. It is not neces-
sary that one shall be a newspaper pub
Usher in order to see that when the
cost of the raw material in the news
paper exceeds the price obtained for 1t
from the distributor, the more papers
distributed the greater must be the
loss. Many newspapers pay a very mail
fraction of profit on circulation under
the best of conditions. Some of these,
since the outbreak of the war, have
seen the margin of profit reduced to the
disappearing point. Others see the mar
gin of loss widening to the danger
point.
Hence at the thirtieth annual meet
ing of the American Newspaper Pub
fishers association, held in New York
within the last few days, the subject
of advancing the price of newspapers
to readers was gravely considered. This
has always been a step which the av
erage newspaper publisher would pre-
fer to avoid. He would rather suffer
some loss, as a rule, than take it. Pride
in circulation and profit in advertising
resulting from circulation are both OPP
posed to increasing the street or sub
seription selling price. Nevertheless,
there must be a limit to the loss which
the publisher is willing or able to car
ry. The burden cannot all be put upon
the advertiser. The reader must assume
some of it. How much of it the reader
will cheerfully assume is the question,
for unless he assumes it cheerfully, cir
culation is affected in the cutting down
of the number of papers taken at the
homes or purchased at news stands or
on the streets.
1t is not likely that an advance in
the price of any newspaper, if made at
all, will be made by a newspaper asso-
citation; that is a matter which will
probably be left entirely to individual
publishers; but while the national asso.
citation was bordering the question in
New York, editors and publishers in
Pennsylvania were adopting the follow
ing:
Resolved, That the publishers Of
the daily newspapers throughout
this state publicly give notice that
unless there be immediate and
great material reduction in the
present prices of labor, mechanical
material and white paper, the time
has arrived to change the price of
the l-eent paper to 2 cents a copy.
A great saving might, of course, be
made by many daily publications
through the reduction of bulk and the
elimination of expensive but apparently
unwarranted and uncalled-for features.
However, this is a phase of the subject
that demands fuller treatment than can
be given it here. The interesting thing
is that out of tn conditions that events
are creating in these later days, many
changes are resulting which may have
a permanent influence upon the business
of newspaper publishing. The one great
hope incident to the situation is that if
we may not have as many cheap news
papers in the future we may, at least,
have better ones.-Christian Science
Monitor.
-G-