NEWSPAPER PRODUCTION.

Franklin Times, Volume 9, Issue 704, 3 February 1922, Page 4

NEWSPAPER PRODUCTION.

One of the businesses tha,t has increased enormously in cost of production of late years is that of the newspapers. Commenting on this question the Lyttelton Times says : “New Zealand conditions show the same features in an exaggerated form. Prior to the war the change for wages in an average newspaper office was 50 per cent, more than the charges for materials.. Now ,the position is reversed, and materials are 50 per cent, above wages. Newspapers are to-day working on materials that cost, landed, more than three times .the figures of 1914. The peak price for newsprint landed during the last twelve monhs was lOd a lb, as against the old price oi* a fraction over a penny. The most fortunate buyers had still to stock their stores at a price 430 per cent, higher than the pre-war cost, and' every newspaper in the country has in store paper, bought on that basis because no newspaper can afford to work without a reserve supply. The best basis on which paper can be bought to-day for future delivery is 160 per cent, higher at the mill than the average pre-war figure, and the cost in store shows a still higgerl advance. All other costs of carriage of newspapers is 105 per cent, higher, and the distribution more than doubles the former cost.” The Lyttelton Times puts the position, from a city point of view, very fairly, though the exeperience of country newspapers show that in the great majority of cases, f the cost of newsprint is greater than stated above, owing to smaller consumption and heavier freights.