22 JULY 1938, Page 20

Sta,—Mr. Charles*Madge surely errs when, in his interesting analysis of

current news values, he concludes that' if a news- paper does not give its readers the right type of news-story, its circulation falls.

I believe I am right in suggesting that circulation figures are affected by feature articles, rather than by news-stories. I have read, for instance, that the publication of extracts from Mr. Compton Mackenzie's book,. Windsor Tapestry, has brought an additional roo,000 readers to that paper. •

Some idea of the importance attached by newspapers to the pulling-power of " features " may also be gauged by the remarkable publicity given in recent years to " special writers," such as Mr. Godfrey Winn, Mr. Hannen Swaffer, Mr. H. V. Morton, Mr. trevor Wignall, Mr. Damon Runyon, and others. Moreover, a study of the big-circulation national dailies reveals that they are becoming more and more obviously " magazine- newspapers," with straight news-items playing second fiddle to comic-strips, gossip columns, astrology features, crossword puzzles, " readers' problems " features, and radio, cinema, gardening and cookery pages.—Yours faithfully, 62 Belgrade Road, London, N.16.

BENJAMIN PERRICK,