From 50 Years Ago: Newspapers: Freedom in Action

Newspapers: Freedom in Action

Had not the government decided that newspapers would be given their newsprint quotas for the first quarter of 1972 on the basis of an average of only 10 pages per day? Yet none of the major newspapers have the lean and hungry look; all of them continue to come out with very many more than the prescribed 10 pages. Nor is it that the newspapers are using anything other than newsprint. Of course, this will be explained all round in terms of accumulated stocks of newsprint. Would the government want to find out how these stocks were built up? Perhaps not; after all, the freedom of the Press must not be pried into too closely!

Something else of interest has recently happened in the newspaper world. The 10-page ceiling on newspapers was occasioned by the need to prune newsprint imports in the wake of the suspension of US aid. But, it was hoped, it would have the same sort of effect as a price-page schedule by compelling the larger newspapers to reduce the advertising they carry. To the extent that the newspapers manage to continue to bring out more than 10 pages this expectation has been already partially belied. But the larger newspapers have sought to protect their advertising revenues by another device. By a strange coincidence all the major English and some prominent language dailies suddenly became aware in the latter half of December of sharp increases in their cost of production and on that ground informed their advertisers of steep increases in advertising rates, ranging from 15 per cent to as much as 35 per cent.