NEWSPAPER COSTS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVIII, Issue 18408, 14 May 1920, Page 3

NEWSPAPER COSTS.

GREAT INCREASES RECORDED. Before its absorption by the ' f Neison Evening Mail,” the “ Nelson Colonist,'’ in an editorial article, made Uto following comments: —“ Very few of the general public have any real conception of the cost of carrying on a daily newspaper supplied by cable and telegraphic services; fewer know how enormously the cost of production has increased ol recent years. Before the war changing conditions led to substantial increase in cost; during the war there were further advances, and to-day the rate of increase is more rapid than at any previous time. The position to-day, as compared with 1914, is that wages have increased 50 per cent, and all materials used in manufacture have greatly incroased in price, the staple commodity in newspaper production, newsprint .paper, showing an enormous advance. During the war newsprint advanced to three times the pre-war price and more To-day there is a shortage in the supply, and price* in the open market are from five to seven times those of 1914, while the prospects are that for several years to pome the cost of newsprint will bo higher than in 1919.”