TO OUR READERS.
We have decided that after the last Saturday in February- i.e., an Saturday, March 6th—the price of the SPECTATOR must be increased to 9d.
We had hoped till quite recently to be able to maintain, the price at which the SPECTATOR was issued before and during the war and for the first year after the close of hostilities. A careful review of the situation at the beginning of the year has made it, however, clear that this is no longer possible.
During the past five years the cost of paper has increased by "approximately from 300 to 400 per cent.," the cost of printing by "approximately 175 to 200 per cent." Salaries and wages have had to be greatly augmented in order to meet the increased cost of living. In almost every item., indeed, the cost of pro- duction has more than doubled. If there had appeared to be any reasonable prospect of a fall in paper, printing, and other costs in the future, we should have been content to continue to hold on at the old price. It was indeed in the hope of such a fall that we refrained from following the example of many other newspapers and raising our price some two years ago.
We are confident that the policy which we have been com- pelled by circumstances to adopt will in no way lose us the support of our readers. They do not take the SPECTATOR because it costs sixpence, but because they either agree with its opinions, or else desire to see the other side put clearly and firmly. Perhaps they give us their confidence most of all because they know that the SPECTATOR is not under any external control. It expresses the actual views of those who conduct it, —is not, in fact, a Party Gramophone.
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