BEHIND ITS RIVAL

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 59, 7 September 1937, Page 19

BEHIND ITS RIVAL

MUSSOLINI'S JOURNAL

All Signor Benito Mussolini's efforts have not succeeded in getting his newspaper "Popolo d'ltalia," up to the circulation level of its principal rival, the "Corriere della Sera," says the Milan correspondent of the "Christian Science Monitor." Various forms of pressure nave been applied to increase its salessuch as requiring Fascist headquarters and branches and all chapters ot the Fascist youth movement to subscribe, making all other newspapers print an advance announcement when the "Popolo d'ltalia" is about to publish an important editorial, and compelling those . papers to reprintp the editorial themselves on the day after, with credit to the "Popolo d'ltalia."

But. circulation is still only about 325,000, while the "Corriere della Sera" has a sale of 450,000. Milan's population is just over a million. The "Popolo" advertising rates are high; the "Corriere della Sera's" are still higher. In fact, the latter paper's are among the highest in the world. The "Corriere della Sera" charges 15 lire per millimeter per column widtli for one insertion of non-classifled advertising. That means about £5 per inch per column. A full page costs around -£875. CLASSIFIED RATES. That is the charge for advertising on all the inside pages on which news stories appear. For the last page, on which there is only classified and display advertising, the rate is £3 6s 8d per inch, column width. The man who needs a job or a furnished room pays much less than another who wants to hire someone or is offering the room for rent. Help wanted ads cost 6d a word, but work wanted ads. cost 3d. Rooms for rent ads. cost 4Jd a word, and request's for rooms 3d. i In the "Popolo d'ltalia" it costs £'3 10s an inch for a marriage announcement, and.only £2 for a death notice. The Government exacts a tax of 1.8 per cent, of the total from the paper. '■ The high cost of paper—2d a.pound —restricts the size of newspapers, and on July 15 all newspapers were limited by law to six pages daily to savecellulose.

Thus the papers have little space for advertising, and can charge high prices. ■ A two-column, six-inch ad is a big one here—and it costs the advertiser £60. If you see a full-page ad you usually can trace it to some political origin.

All newspapers in Italy sell for 30 centesimi a copy, or _ld.

No financial figures are published for the "Popolo d'ltalla," but the Premier 3s generally considered to have • profitable enterprise.