A WORD FOR NEWSPAPER PROPRIETORS.
Why is it that the public for the most part hold curious views as to the nature and value of newspaper property ? Why is it that the newspaper proprietor is treated in different fashion to other business mortals ? '■*o one would dream of asking the merchant for a bag of flour as a gift, but there are many who unblushingly ask the newspaper inau for a free paper. Managers of Mechanics’ Institutes are the greatest sinners in this line. If a paper is worth having, it is worth paying for, is a maxim we ourselves have of late religiously followed, md in carrying it out we have revised our free list heavily, dwindling it to the smallest proportions. A free paper is oy no means “free” to the man whose capital produces it, but it means in the twelve months a very appreciable outlay in actual cash, besides that expended on clerical labor, and when some dozens of copies are down as “dead heads” the loss entailed to ( a badness is large. Besides this tax on good nature and pocket, the newspaper proprietor must stand the racket of another loss, a loss t-o whicli other businesses are not liabK When iron rises or sugar is high, it is the customer and nt the merchant who has to pay the difference. But the newspaper proprietor cannot so regulate the market as between himself and his customers. The price of bis paper is fixed, and is in a manner unalterable, and placed, as that price is, at the lowest limit possible, he stands in the unenviable position of being liable to loss, and rarely if ever to gain by any difference in that price which ru'ed at the outset ; and, of course, a rise in the cost of paper or of printing material is to him a direct and sul s antial loss. For many months past, both paper and printing material—the former especially—have risen considerably, and we but name this fact as our reason for reducing our free list, and as a hint that we may very possibly reduce it still further. Timaru Herald, July 21.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ESD18730820.2.20
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Evening Star, Issue 3276, 20 August 1873, Page 3
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360A WORD FOR NEWSPAPER PROPRIETORS. Evening Star, Issue 3276, 20 August 1873, Page 3
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