NEWSPAPER ACCOUNTS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 18 October 1924, Page 4

NEWSPAPER ACCOUNTS.

The proprietors of the Star are impelled to use.these columns to discuss generally the matter of newspaper accounts, and in particular to direct attention to an advertisement inserted by the proprietors, which appears on the first page of this issue. It is practically impossible to carryon the business of a daily newspaper on a cash basis. Credit must be given, and this proprietary, in common with all trading concerns giving credit, has to suffer the ivorries and losses incidental to the system. It must, however. be apparent, that there is exceptional expense incurred and risk involved in undertaking the d.eliveTy daily of so low priced an article as 'a copy of a newspaper over hundreds of miles of road covering more than half a province. A motor vehicle passes a farm six times a week, delivering as many separate issues of a newspaper, and the gross return to the proprietary is, if the subscriber pays in advance, ninepence, which is certain; and if the paper is delivered on credit, one shilling, which, we are sorry to state, is in too many instances uncertain. It is to reach the consciences of those who are backward in paying that these lines are penned. The proprietary is very satisfied with the appreciation of tiie Star as demonstrated by the circulation of the paper, but it is very necessary that those who enjoy privileges sjiould pay for then*. Many hundreds of pounds have been written off in eases of hardship. Especially has this been the case where people have had to walk off their farm s as victims of high prices and the subsequent slump, but there is a class who, though quite able to pay, let their newspaper accounts mount up to an altogether unreasonable extent. The majority of these people are mightilyoffended if a straight-out. demand for immediate payment is made. This proprietary is taking a firm- stand ill the matter of overdue accounts, but is desirous of giving fair notice of the fact to those who are concerned. It is common knowledge that the price, charged for newspapers has no reasonable relation to the cost of production. and that it is revenue from advertising that lc#ps the neiyspaper going, enabling the reader to receive something for which he pays only a fraction of the actual eost. The reader to-dav, and for eighteen months past, has benefited by a reduced charge which was not warranted by any lessened cost of production. The effect of the reduction in selling price naturally bears more heavily upon those concerns who, to a considerable extent, make road deliveries over wide areas of country. That is the position of the Star, and it must be met by shortening the credit given in the past and insisting upon payment, or a satisfactory arrangement for payment, being made in respect of accounts now overdue. It is opportune here to also remind country dwellers how much they owe to the newspaper offices in the way of postal deliveries and facilities. We know of no other country district as well served ns Taranaki, in the way of daily paper and mail deliveries. The cost of these deliveries is a serious burden on newspaper revenues, and it is a fact that in quite a number of instances a thrice weekly mail service would he substituted for a daily one by the Postal Department if the newspaper office did not provide a sufficient subsidy to supplement the maximum grant the Postal Department was prepared to make —in a few eases the postal service would possibly be dropped altogether. Newspaper proprietors have burdened themselves 'to an extent not warranted by returns to secure postal benefits for the country settlers, and it is. to their own advantage that these should assist to make the burden as light as possible.