NEWSPAPERS OF NEW ZEALAND

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 76, 17 May 1941, Page 4

NEWSPAPERS OF NEW ZEALAND

FURTHER REDUCTION IN SIZE CONSERVING STOCKS OF NEWSPRINT A further reduction in the sizes of newspapers in the Dominion is announced by the Newspaper Proprietors’ Association. Imports of newsprint paper have already been severely curtailed and in view of the generally unsettled conditions j regarding shipping transport, it has been deemed necessary to take steps to ensure that existing reserves of stocks held within the Dominion should be made to last as long as is reasonably possible. As a result of representations made by the Ministry of Supply, the Newspaper Proprietors’ Association has undertaken to co-oper-ate in the enforcement of economies in the consumption of newsprint which will assist to safeguard the future. Newspapers generally will be reduced in size, but practically all the main news services now supplied to the public will be maintained. This is considered essential to the public interest. Where it is necessary to curtail advertising space advertisers will find compensation in the fact that broadly speaking they will be able to retain their customary proportion of space to the reduced size of the papers. There will of necessity be some increase in the advertising rates to offset in part the lessened volume of advertising, but the purpose aimed at is to ensure the fullest possible publicity for advertisers without addition to their total cost. The arrangement made in this respect, it is pointed out, has been approved by the Price Tribunal. In other parts of the Empire, notably in Britain and Australia, where similar steps have been found necessary, advertisers are stated to have found that smaller spaces in smaller papers have attracted proportionately more reader attention, and it is anticipated that this will be the experience here in New Zealand. In making this announcement the Newspaper Proprietors’ Association urges its members to exercise every possible economy, but at the same time points out that advertisers, for the time being at least, need be under no apprehension that their reasonable space requirements will not be adequately catered for.