The Press MONDAY, MARCH 16, 1964. Our “Shop Window”

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30391, 16 March 1964, Page 10

The Press MONDAY, MARCH 16, 1964. Our “Shop Window”

The change in our presentation of the news this morning will please some readers and may displease some others. It has not been made without due deliberation. Indeed, we think it will be patent to everyone that we could not have resisted for so long the now almost universal practice of printing news on the front page without having frequently and anxiously considered whether that policy was hi the best interests of the paper and our readers. The change has been delayed for a number of reasons, chief among them the belief that. New Zealand newspaper readers are conservative in their tastes and would see no virtue in change merely for the sake of change. In support of this belief we had the evidence of our steadily growing circulation to show that the public were not dissatisfied.

New considerations have now, we believe, swung the balance in favour of change. An increasing number of New Zealanders are visiting other countries, and increasing numbers of people from other countries are coming to New Zealand. Both tend to find the old-fashioned arrangement of pages unattractive if not repelling. Modern newspaper practice looks upon the front page as the “ shop “ window ” of the newspaper; and it is true that any shop that failed to keep up to date in its methods of displaying its wares would soon fall behind its competitors. Add to this the fact that no newspaper which has made the change has yet felt impelled to reverse the order, and the argument for front-page presentation of the news becomes very persuasive indeed.

We believe that even those of our readers whose immediate reaction is unfavourable will quickly become accustomed to the new arrangement, and that before long they will prefer it to the old. Our belief in this is strengthened by our determination that the character of the paper shall not be altered in any way. If the front page offers temptations to sensationalise the news, these will be resisted just as resolutely as they have been resisted by the many good newspapers in this and other countries which have long since pre-empted the front page for their best news of the day and whose readers would now regard any other practice as eccentric. The remainder of the paper has been disturbed as little as possible because regular readers like to find things in their accustomed places. The opportunity has been taken, however, to effect typographical improvements which will make for more comfortable reading; and more space should now become available on the leader page for special articles explaining the background to the news.

While the “shop window” is important to any business, in the long run the business will stand or fall by the quality of the goods it sells. Determined to maintain its traditional standards, “ The Press ” is confident that it will lose none of its long-standing friends in consequence of its changed outward appearance; it believes that its brighter “shop “window” will help to attract many new ones. Newspaper styles, like fashions in clothes or architecture or interior decoration, are bound to change. The wheel of fashion often turns full circle; and the most unyielding traditionalists among our readers may be mollified by the thought that today their newspaper returns to a modem version of the dress in which it first made its bow to the public on May 25, 1861.