NEWSPAPER FAILURE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 12 May 1925, Page 9

NEWSPAPER FAILURE.

MELBOURNE SUN CEASES PUBLICATION.

A DISASTROUS VENTU RE. CAPITAL HALF A MILLION. .Details of the circumstances attending the discontinuance of publication by the Evening Sun and the transference o*f the Sun Pictorial to the Melbourne Herald aii*e contained, in. papers to luandi by the Australian mail. As Harold Burston, writing in the Herald, -remarks: “The abandonment ol the Evening Sun, the decision to sel! the News Pictorial _ and the Sydney Sun Company’s decision to withdraw fro.m Melbourne, constitute the worst tragedy in the history of journalism. No other Australian newspaper venture. h’ad been, m well, equipped with funds to embark on an ambitious enterprise. to establish a. thoroughly efficient.' pla-nt and to provide an . organisation of the nest literary and mechanical talent available.” The faults of this yeiiture, as told by the same journal. a,re worth, recapitulating. The Evening Sun was launched in, the first week of April, 1923. ' A. good deal oF money and n great deal of newspaper-making talent were ,a,t its service. The parent company h’ad sent over £150,000, taking up all the ordinary shares theft issued at £l. A sum of £loo,>ooo had been raised partly in Sydney and partly in Melbourne, 'by the issue: of 100,000 eight per cent, cumulative preference shares. A morning illustrated paper had been, started, and by that time was doing well. There is no doubt, that the parent, company fully believed that the capital provided sufficient to 'secure, building and plant, and leave something for working expenses, would provide nearly, or even completely sufficient for the great venture. Nothing wats .spaded to .secure everything needed, in the opinion of those directing the entemri.se, to give the public high quality in production and distribution.

Huge Losses'. , Yet it 'lias been a complete failure, and there is now open confession that the enormous costs of newspaper production h'ave definitely ended the enterprise. 'The company had not been long going when the capital had to he increased by another £150,000. the issue being- made in £1 ordinary shares, for which, the. parent company again had to- pay. This made £400,000 of actual cash expended in the venture. Eia.rly this year more money was needed. The company increased its capital toi £500,000. We understand that the full half-million pounds sterling has been absorbed in. plant, buildings, working capital and trading losses. No doubt a very - large part of this is recoverable by disposal of such first-class assets, a.s machinery, real property and the illustrated morning paper, but it is quite clear that the half-million ha® proved a. totally inadequate sum l for the purpose of the company. Indeed, we doubt whether the provision, of even a much greater sum would have availed. The Sydney group would have, certainly gone on had it felt any assurance that the journal could have been established with some further expenditure, but apparently it has decided that success could be achieved, if at all, only hy su.ch A stupendous expenditure as would make the whole venture financially unsound, and it has preferred to. “cut its losses.”

Difficulties 'of Evening Journals

It is perhaps not realised by the public, always censorious, and apt to regard! its daily commodities as matters-of-course, that newspaper production is one of the most intricate and difficult of businesses. The expenses, always very great, have doubled since pre-war days. The principal raw material, white newsprint, costs double pre-war price. The large professional, mechanical and other staffs required, working at high speed and requiring qualities of accuracy and precision, properly require good working conditions andi good, living conditions. Experiences Abroad. Tflie Evening Sun experience may seem a surprising cue, but it is only in kepein.g with what has been happening during and since the war in other great cities. In London during the last few years three dailies have disappeared—The Globe, The Standard and The Pall Mall Gazette—whilst The Westminster Gazette has been changed froan. an evening to a morning paper. London, with its population, of eight millions, and its vast provincial connections, hats now three evening papers only—Evening News, Standard, and Star. In New York to-day there a,re five fewer papers than eight years ago. Four journals, including two of the most famous newspapers in American history, have disappeared within the last eighteen, months. Chicago., a generation ago, had five morning papers; to-day it has only two. St. Louis, with over 800,000 inhabitants, has but one morning paper. The fact that half a million, pounds was spent in the Melbourne effort without good results, does not, therefore, surprise those conversant with newspaper enterprises elsewhere.