CRISIS IN PUBLISHING TRADE.

Taranaki Daily News, 30 July 1921, Page 9

CRISIS IN PUBLISHING TRADE.

HEAVY WAGES BILL AND DEARER PAPER.

That the publishing business is reaching a point where production may have practically tn cease for the time being is a fact unknown to the general public. Mr. John Murray, the well-known publisher, gave some interesting facts on the situation to a Pail Mall Gazette representative the other day. At the present time, he said, 1 am reluctantly compelled to refuse books almost daily which in pre-war times I should have gladly published. The two root factors of the situation are: The insistent demands of labor and the ex*traordinary increase in the price of paper. Between them they are forcing up the prices of books to a point where we can only produce at a loss. People will not pay above a certain price for books; and you cannot ask, say, 15s — ■the economic price—for a book which normally would cost ss.

To put the matter in a ntitshell, we are paying on an average over three times as much for every item in book production as wo paid four years ago, and still prices are rising against, us. We were recently making estimates for reprints which formerly would have cost us £'B3o. Now wo find the cost to be between £2400 and £2500. *

From the labor standpoint, Me are constantly receiving notices from printers and book-binders stating that they have to raise their charges because of having to grant continuous increases or wages and to their employees. At the present time the men, who work 48 hours weekly, are agitating for a 41-hour week. But it is found that with the present 48-hour week less work is done per hour than used to be the case with a week of 51 hours.

In a word, the nst of composition is now two and a half times That of pre-war days; of machinery, two and a half to three times: of binding, three to three and a half times.

Then as to paper. Before the war it used, to cost us 2 3-Sd per pound; during the war it rpse to Is 7d, and although it dropped for.a time, it is again threatening to rise to that figure, and there is no prospect of its falling. Again, all our establishment charges •■such as rent, rates, taxes, salaries, catalogues, packing, etc., have all largely increased—a fact often forgotten when the present price of books is criticised.

There* is one point which the average book buyer often makes, which is caused entirely by a misapprehension. He

agrees that while the rise in prices since 1914 is reasonable, yet it is not justified in the case of books printed before ithe outbreak of war. But he forgets titan « publisher rarely binds the whole edition of a. hook at one time. All the sheets may he there, but they are bound only as and when required.

Also it has to he remembered that establishment charges apply just as much to pre-war books as those of the present, day. To show the comparative cost, of bind, ing pre-war stock it would be well to give one or two instances taken at random:—•

These figures show that the price of books has risen proportionately less than that of anything. There is practically no hope of the price ever falling to preva- level.

But, as I have said, we are in danger of reaching a point where a book cannot bp marketed -for a figure which the public will pay. Thf-n we shall be faced with a. real crisis.

Published Price. Pro-war. Present. Pre-war. Present. 4|d 3s Od 7s 6d 8s Od 7±d ■ Is lOd ] Os 6d 12s Od 4<1 Is Od 6s Od 7 s Od