The Sixpenny "Spectator"
The 'decision of the national daily papers, except The Times, and many others to increase their prices from next Monday draws pointed attention to the position of journals like the Spectator. Is a rise in price inevitable here, too ? That question has been the subject of anxious consideration in the Spectator office, and, no doubt in others, for some weeks past. Many weekly publications, like the Radio Times and The Times Literary Supplement, have gone up already.
It is desirable to put the situation plainly before our readers, who have always stood in a particularly close relationship to ourselves. The cost of the paper used by the Spectator in 1939 was £18 5s. a ton ; the same paper today costs £88 a ton. The cost of printing is approximately four times what it was in 1939. In addition, postage has increased from id. to 11d. a copy, and carriage in bulk by a similar 50 per cent. The price of the Spectator in 1939 was 6d.; the price of the Spectator in 1951 is 6d. still.
How long can that continue ? The only answer to be given is that it will continue till it becomes impossible. A paper can run with drastically reduced profits, as the Spectator is doing today, but it cannot run at a loss. An increase of price to 9d. or is. might restore profits to their normal level, for we believe that the great majority of our readers would continue to take the Spectator still. But, added to the numerous increases of price in every direction, it would lay a burden on readers which we are unwilling to impose on them if it can by any means be avoided.
Whether it can be avoided is still uncertain. If there is any substantial further rise in the price of paper or printing costs, a sixpenny Spectator will cease to be possible. The decision is only to a small extent in our own hands ; it is governed almost entirely by external circumstances. All that can be said is that the Spectator will be sold at the traditional sixpence as long as is economically practicable. Production costs may conceivably have reached their peak. if so, there remains some hope of weathering through.
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