The announcement, made on Tuesday without prior warning to the
small editorial staff or the regular contributors, that Messrs. George Newnes will cease, for economic reasons,' to publish John O'London's Weekly after this week's issue has attracted a lot of adverse comment. The economic reasons are believed to be, not that John O'London's was losing money, but that it was Only making a little. This belief may be unfounded, but the paper's circulation, which has latterly shown an upward trend, has always fluctuated between 50,000 and 80,000, and it is difficult to find any justification for the undignified and inconsiderate manner in which it was given its quietus. John O'London's embodied an honourable tradition of sound literary craftsmanship and good taste; since it was started in 1919 it has been, as The Thnes put it, ' regularly helpful and stimulating.' and few periodicals have done more to put good writing within the reach of the young. It could of course never hope to rival in popularity some of the other Nenes publications. Woman's Own has a circulation of two and a half million, Tit-Bits, after being judiciously sexed up, is over the million mark, and there are several other money-spinners. Nobody expects a successful publisher to be over-sentimental, or to run a paper as a sort of charity just because it happens to have quality and standing, though there are worse things to do. It seems pretty clear that Newnes, who put down the Strand Magazine almost equally abruptly a few years ago, can be relied upon not to deviate into altruism.
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