We have now had nearly three weeks of the larger
daily papers, which is time for most people to make up their minds what they think of them. Certainly not everyone welcomes the enlargement. The four-page paper had got well standardised ; we knew where to find what we wanted, and the sheet now inserted between pages 2 and 3 is a rather confusing intrusion. It, of course, provides more news-space, but the value of that depends on the nature of the news served up ; if it is an Aly Khan-Rita Hayworth splash the gain is small. Nor does the additional sheet benefit the papers themselves as much as the insistence of the demand for it might suggest. A raw material bill increased by zo per cent. while the newspaper still sells at a penny is no small matter ; the additional advertisements carried can hardly cover the actual cost. The other feature of the new regime dating from January 3rd is that circulations are now unpegged. The result of that seems to be a very small increase in the total circulation of the popular papers, but a considerable shift to the Daily Mirror and the Daily Express from some of their competitors. Whether that is progress heavenwards is a matter on which every free citizen may
hold his own opinion.
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