The daily commonwealth. (Greenwood, Leflore Co., Miss.) 1916-1919, 1917-05-25
THE PRICES OF NEWSPAPERS.


Y
! Ever since the high prices of paper has been
~torturing newspaper publishers-and, thank good
ness, the government has about ended the torture
PUBLISHERS of metropolitan newspapers have
been compelled to increase the price of their pro-
duct.
In cities all over the United States-every-
where except in New York-one-cent newspapers
have been raised to two cents.
The result has been that the papers are more
carefully read. A person paying two cents for a
paper, in other words, attempted to get twice
as much value out if it. At one cent. man" r"r-
sons merely glanced at the papers and figured they
got their cents worth. At two cents, the publ
cation sticks to their fingers longer.
Advertisers quickly discovered that the space
they bought was worth more; in many cases the
value of space doubled. For when readers fondle
a paper longer, trying to get their two-cents
worth out of it, naturally they had greater oppor-
tunity to study the ads.
The big newspapers, for the first time since the
production of newspapers on a large scale began,
began to take on qualities of small papers, which
all students of journalism have always admitted,
are more carefully read than the big ones.
Readers of The Commonwealth, for instance,
as a rule 60 through the paper more carefully than
the readers of a great ~one-cent daily in a big city.
The bigger and bulkier a paper is, the more diff
cult it is for readers to devote proper attention
and time to each page, with the result that the
pulling power of each page per reader is enormous
ly decreased.
That also indicates why advertisements in pa
pers like The Commonwealth are seen by a larger
nj. = .-.J-.. r Al:~ ~.ro~ klc~ olo y,
metropolitan dailies. This is not theory, but fact.
Reading the ads" is an important part of the ed
~ucation of small newspaper readers, while in the
case Of the large papers, there is a great deal less
chance to do so because of the bulkier papers. Il
AAAAAAA
HOW TO RAISE PRICES.
Advice as to how to increase the prices of food
stuffs is not in order. The Commonwealth knows
it; but is going to give the advice nevertheless
probably because this paper knows it will make no
difference, as our economical housekeepers have
long ago done just the thing that this advice in
wolves.
Some time ago, when potatoes began aeroplan-
ing, every housewife in Greenwood decided to buy
Just as many as she could get hold of, 80 as to
have some on hand when the price goes higher"
a,, The result was that the demand for potatoes
was enormously increased as housewives through
out the nation followed this principle.
The same was true with other commodities
the first impulse when prices began soaring was to
buy in large quantities. The demand that follow
ed was so prodigious that it was small wonder
that the figures swelled quickly and enormously.
The right way to keep down prices in an emer-
gency is to buy as little at a time as possible. If
everyone in the country did that, think how the
demand would be lightened, and how readily the
excuse for constantly overlapping higher prices
would be eliminated.
The advice was, how to raise prices-by buy
ing in large quantities in the face of a national
stringency of foodstuffs. The Commonwealth
merely gives it in the belief that nobody will fol-
low it in the future, but on the contrary, will fol-
low the inference that keeping prices down to a
reasonable level merely is bound up with keeping
down the demand for certain foodstuffs by buying
as little at a time as possible.
A GERMAN REVOLUTION.
James Gerard, former ambassador to Germany
i ~ H. ~------ IL c--~-s L. \.