The Bottom Line

The Bottom Line is a song from the Broadway adaptation of Newsies. It sung by Joseph Pulitzer (John Dossett) and his staff in the first act where he decides to earn more money on his newspaper business by increasing the price for the newsboys to by and sell them.
In Act II, it is reprised where Jack goes to Pulitzer to talk about the strike only to be locked in a cellar with a choice to speak out against the Newsboy strike or go back to juvenile hall.
==Lyrics==
<tabber>
Act 1=
Pulitzer: Gentlemen, we need to sell more papers.
There's an answer right before your eyes, but you're just not thinking this through.
Nunzio knows, when
He's cutting my hair,
Trim a bit here and then
Trim a bit there.
Just a modest adjustment
Can fatten the bottom line.
Bunsen: What if we cut back personnel?
Seitz: How about a few salary trims?
Bunsen: We could lower the price of the paper.
Pulitzer: Bankrupting me even faster!
Let me try again
Shaving is tricky:
The razor Should float
Shave me too close and you
May slit my throat.
Its the simplest solutions
That bolster the bottom line
Bunsen: I've got it!
If we charge the Newsies sixty cents per hundred instead of fifty
Seitz: They'd have to sell ten more papers just to earn the same amount as always.
Pulitzer: My thought exactly.
Its genius.
Hannah: Its gonna be awfully rough on those children.
Pulitzer: They'll be learning a real life lesson in economics.
I couldn't offer them a better education if they were my own.
Give me a week and Ill train them to be
Like an army that's
Marching to war.
Proud of themselves and so
Grateful to me,
They'll be begging to pay even more!
When there's dirt On our shoes, boys,
For Gods sake, relax!
Why throw them out?
All we need is some wax
Listen well to these barbershop lessons,
For they'll see you through.
Employees: When you're stuck in the muck you'll be fine.
You'll erase any trace of decline.
Seitz: With a trim
Hannah: And a snip Bunsen: And a shine!
Pulitzer: And the power of the press,
Yes! Once again is mine!
The price for the Newsies goes up in the morning!
Just a few common cents, Gents, that's the bottom line!
Employees: Every new outcome Its income for you,
Thanks to that bottom line!
|-|Reprise=
Pulitzer (sung):
Time's running out, kid
So what do you say?
Cowboy or convict
I win either way
Your abject surrender
Was always the bottom line
Pulitzer (spoken):
Gentlemen, escort our guest to the cellar so he might reflect in solitude
Pulitzer (sung):
Too bad you've no job, Jack
But you did resign
Too bad you've no family
But you can't have mine
Be glad you're alive, boy
I'd say that's the bottom line
Seitz: Like the Pied Piper you knew what to play
Pulitzer: 'Till those kids all believed you were right
Mayor: Lucky for them all but one got away
</tabber>
Category:Newsies songs
Category:Musical songs
Category:Villain songs
Category:Reprise
Category:Group songs