Some of the risks attending the conduct of newspapers were
emphasised at the Trades Union Congress last week, when Sir Walter Citrine, speaking on a proposal that the T.U.C. should run a weekly paper of its own, said the Congress had had a long and unhappy experience in this field. It ran a daily newspaper (the Daily Citizen), whose circulation never got above 250,000 ; it tried' to run a weekly called the New Clarion, which cost them large sums ; the Daily Herald cost them £5oo,000—presumably before financial responsi- bility for the paper was taken over by Messrs. Odhams. Since the circulation Of daily papers has, so far as can be seen, by this time reached saturation-point or very near it, any new paper can get circulation only by detaching readers from existing papers. That is a very considerable deterrent to begin with and accounts for the scepticism with which any rumour of the appearance of a new
morning paper is received. * * * *
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