Page 4 Advertisements Column 3

Otaki Mail, 3 February 1922, Page 4

COST OF PRODUCING NEWSPAPERS. The Lyttelton Times, commenting on the cost of producing daily newspapers, says: New Zealand conditions /how the same features in an exaggerated form. Prior to the war the j charge for wages in an average newsI paper office was 50 per cent more i than the charges for materials. Now ' the position is reversed, arfrl materiaJs are 50 per cent above wages. News-; papers are to-day • working on materials that cost, landed, more than three times the figure of 1014. The peak price for newsprint landed during the last twelve- months was lOd a lb, as against the old price of a fraction over a penny, The most fortunate buyers had still to stock their stores at a price 430 per cent higher than the prewar cost, and every 7 newspaper in the country 7 has in .siore 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 r 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 bigger advance. All other costs have advanced similarly. Thus the cost of carriage of newspapers is 105 per cent higher and the distribution more than double the forgier cost.