PRICE OF NEWSPAPER.

Taranaki Daily News, 19 February 1921, Page 11

PRICE OF NEWSPAPER.

BOARD OF TRADE REPORT. SOME STRIKING FIGURES. The chairman of the Board of Trade, Mr. W. G. McDonald, has reported to the Hon. E. P. Lee, president of thb board, the results of an inquiry into the price of newsprint paper in New Zealand. The report says:—There appears to be practically a monopolistic control of the supply for the Dominion. The acuteness of the position as to price can be best illustrated by a few figures. Below is given the pre-war and the present-day costs of three metropolitan newspapers for paper alone:—

The pre-war price is taken at £l2 a ton and the present-day £6B. In actual fact as much as £96 a ton has been paid for paper within the past few months, and there is still paper on order at prices ranging from £BO to £lOO a ton. What the enormous advance in price means may be best shown by comparing the amount realised from sales of the daily newspapers with the cost of the paper itself. For the purposes of simple computation it may be taken that the average metropolitan daily paper in New Zealand runs about copies to the pound weight of print paper. These papers are sold to the public at 2d each, but the cost, exclusive of paper, amounts to about $d a copy. The net return ranges from 1 l-8d to about 1 l-3d a copy, though it is doubtful if any papers actually receive a clear 1 l-3d net if all publishing and distributing costs are taken into account. However, it is here assumed that papers do show a return of 1 l-3d on sales. The ton of paper as supplied to-day from Canada is a gross ton weight—that is, packing and core are included. Allowing for this, and spoils, waste, and unsolds, the net yield from a ton of paper is about 20001 b weight of printed, paper. Allowing 4* papers to the pound gives 900 Q papers from a ton of paper. The cost of paper is .... £6B per ton. The sale of 9,000 papers (yield per ton) 1 1 -3d each £5O Loss per ton £lB The report also deals at length with the exchange situation, freights, etc.

Tonnage Pre-war Present-day Used. Cost. Cost. £ £ £ 500 6,000 34,000 750 ■ 9,000 51,000 2,000 24,000 • 13’6,000