LORD KEMSLEY'S NEWSPAPERS
Sta,—When Lord Kemsley assures your readers that he always puts public interest before private profit he will give them as much satisfaction as he must get himself from the knowledge that all the companies he is associated with are sound commercial concerns. However, the point raised by " Janus " was not a criticism of Lord Kemsley, but of a system which allows unlimited development of newspaper combines. Such combines can only spring from great financial resources which are originated and maintained by vast circulations. I may be permitted to delicately hint that a high standard of journalism and a high circulation are infrequently found together, therefore it does not require the wisdom
of Solomon to see danger in the extension of newspaper combinations. Human nature being what it is, we cannot hope to see a continuance of the public spirit that Lord Kemsley claims in successive newspaper combines. A newspaper free from State control is not necessarily free; private control can be far more dangerous because it is unnoticed by the majority of readers.
It seems to me, if we wish to save the real freedom of the Press, we must make the newspaper industry less profitable, must have more news- papers, quite independent of one another, paying less dividends and employing a larger number of qualified and conscientious journalists.— Yours truly, FREDERICK WILLIS.
40 Wodeland Avenue, Guildford, Surrey.
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