WITH PRIDE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 45, 30 September 1949, Page 4

WITH PRIDE

Not long ago, at a meeting at Whakatane. .someone suggested that Beacon publicity would be helpful to a cause. One of our

prominent citizens made the astonishing statement that it surprised him to know how few people read the Beacon. We say his statement was astonishing because he does not know and has never attempted to find out from us how many people do read the paper. Had he wanted the information, he could have had it, and we would have been proud to give it to him. In preference to taking the trouble to inform himself of the facts, he chose to use his ignorance to belittle a local institution.

In. this Borough there are approximately 830 homes, housing a population of about 3,800 people. The Beacon circulates 2,055 copies in an area concentrated from Te Teko to Waimana. Some go further afield, but our critic was concerned with advertising in this locality. In the Borough area and at Ohope we deliver 799 copies, which we consider quite a creditable proportion of the households available.

In fact, it must be one of the highest percentages of newspaper coverage in the North Island.

Let us make a comparison

Tauranga, including its neighbour, Mt Maunganui, has approximately 7,800 population. It is very proud of its" local newspaper and its circulation, for which the published figure is 2,500. More, we are ready to wage that Tauranga’s citizens are just as proud of their paper as the people who produce it. We cannot tell our critic how many people read the paper. We have" contented ourselves with stating how many buy it. We assume they do not pay 2d a copy ,t° get something with which to light their fires. Advertisement statisticians usually calculate three readers to each subscription. Here it should be added that, until recently, circulation was strictly limited by the amount of newsprint available. To some extent it still is, though we have been able to satisfy everyone on the waiting list and are now in a position to accept more new subscribers.