The Press

Twopence Coloured

By R ANDOLPH S. CHURCHILL

Co the Weekend Telegraph has at length come tato terms with the newsagents. Instead of id. from the paper and id. for delivery it is now to be Id. and ld. The Observer and the Sunday Times have agreed to the same figures. This is an improvement on the previous somewhat avari- cious claim of the newsagents for 2d. and 2d.; but it still constitutes a very heavy burden on the three colour supplements. I reckon it will cost the Telegraph and the Sunday Times an increase of not less than i60,000. The Observer with a smaller circulation will probably have £40,000 added to its annual expenses.

Each year the newspaper industry gives a dinner for 'Old Ben'—symbol of a broken-down retired newspaper vendor. These eleemosynary activities are based on a fallacy. There are not many 'Old Bens' left. The ones I have recently been talking to are exceptionally active and alert. They have to work very hard but their businesses are reasonably profitable. They don't want charity in their old age: they prefer reasonable payment for their arduous duties. These have now been

obtained and we must hope that harmony will be fully restored to this branch of the newspaper industry. The trouble started with the somewhat arrogant attitude adopted by Mr. Michael Berry towards the newsagents. He treated them as if they were all 'Old Bens' on whom he could arbitrarily impose his price. He knows better now.

These surcharges are trivial in comparison with the immense tax of 15 per cent put on im- ported newsprint. It is too soon to make an accurate estimate but it is certainly going to cost the industry five or six million pounds per annum. This will surely mean that newspapers will be increased in price in the near future. Worst hit will be the Beaverbrook group and the Thomson group. They both import nearly all their newsprint from Canada. Least badly hit will be Mr. Cecil Harmsworth King's IPC. They buy 90 per cent of their newsprint in Britain. Many pro- vincial newspapers are also likely to find the going tough.

The Weekend Telegraph will have to bear an extra burden. Their magazine is printed in Germany and will presumably, as a finished pro- duct, be subjected to the 15 per cent. Its produc- tion in Germany costs about £40,000 a week; this means an extra impost of £6,000 per week— say £300,000 per annum. It's lucky that the Daily Telegraph is so prosperous.

Last Sunday the Sunday Times had a colour motor show supplement as well as its regular colour supplement. I estimate that these two sections carried approximately £120,000 worth of advertisements. Calculating on the same basis, I estimate that the Weekend Telegraph had approximately £30,000 and the Observer £25,000. Of course; the Sunday Times's motor supple- ment lost money. I gather, however, that they thought it worth while as it mopped up a lot of colour advertising that might have gone to its rivals.

For reading value the Weekend Telegraph was far and away in the lead of the two Sunday colour supplements. It contained four articles with coloured photographs and two with black and white. The Sunday Times only had two with colour and five with black and white; and the Observer two with colour and six with black and white. The Sunday Times also had their colour supplement on the Motor Show.

Here is the breakdown of the Weekend Tele- graph and the Sunday magazines : -

Sunday Sunday Weekend Times Times Telegraph Observer Motor Special

pages pages pages

pages.

Colour matter

10

, 9 20 75 Colour advertising • 19 11 11 135 Black and white advertising 131

.31

54 31

John Gordon opened his comical column in the Sunday Express this week with the sentence: 'Most of you I expect are as bored as I am with the political hot air blown at us since the election.' I would have said that most of the 'hot air' blown off since the election was blown off by the news- papers rather than by the politicians.

For instance, Miss Nora Beloff writing on the front page of the Observer tells us: 'Home will go if Tories can agree on successor.' Untrue. Is it conceivable that Sir Alec would wantonly re- create the situation which existed a year ago at the time of the Blackpool Conference when the whole party was thrown into confusion by the untimely striking down of Mr. Harold Mac-

millan? If you can believe that, you can believe anything.

More of what Mr. Gordon would call 'hot air' appeared on the leader page of the Observer. Under the headline 'Exit Mr. Butler' the Observer wrote: Some Tories may, of course, be inclined to blame Mr. Butler for contributing to their defeat by his notorious Daily Express interview. But others may feel that, just conceivably, there might be no need now for a post-mortem on an election defeat if Mr. Butler had been leading the party?' Ho I And how about Mr. Charles Douglas-Home writing in Monday's Daily Express stating that Mr. Duncan Sandys 'may be' going to get a peerage. Untrue. Mr. Sandys has not been offered a peerage- and he would not accept it if he were offered it. How is that for 'hot air;' Mr. Gordon?