What size newspapers do we want? The question is raised
very pertinently in a booklet on the newsprint question by Sir Walter Layton, who, as Chairman of the News Chronicle, and at the same time Chairman of the Rationing Committee of the Newsprint Supply Company (a co-operative concern formed during the war by the daily newspapers) has reason to know what he is talking about. We tend to forget what the size of the popular papers—to speak of them alone —was in 1933-39. The Daily Mail, now like all its competitors restricted to 4 pages, then frequently ran to 2o, and the others were
—Or little smaller. Readers have got out of the habit of the 20-page paper to-day and I doubt whether they want to re-acquire it. Sir Walter sets as target (to adopt the too universal jargon) 6 pages in 1947, 8 pages in 1948, and 12 in 195o. He thinks the papers might well be content to stop at 12, and I quite agree with him.
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