Smaller " Spectators "
This week The Spectator, in common with other weekly periodicals, suffers a cut of to per cent. in its paper ration ; the quantity allotted, instead of being 35 per cent. of the pre-war ration, will be 31f per cent. That means that either the circulation or the size of the paper must be cut by to per cent. To reduce the circula- tion at a time when it is steadily rising would be extremely unde- sirable, and the other alternative is being adopted. A to per cent. cut on our normal size of 32 pages would mean a reduction to 29 pages, but since for technical reasons The Spectator is paged in multiples of four, any reduction, must be to 28. A loss of four pages, divided between editorial matter and advertisements, would be re- grettable, but all the essential features of the paper could be preserved. For the present, indeed, as a result of various adjustments, it will only be necessary to fall back on the 28-page paper in alter- nate weeks, but it may well be that before long the 32-page papers will have to go altogether. Advertisement space, and consequently of course advertisement revenue, is being cut, and by varying the number of advertisement pages the editorial matter can be kept at 21 pages for both the 28-page and the 32-Page paper. This inevitably involves some sacrifice. One feature, " On the Air," must be dropped till better days return, and the space allotted to " Letters to the Editor " and to book reviews must be slightly reduced ; writers of letters can help considerably by aiming resolutely at brevity. On the whole, little change will be noticeable in The Spectator, but we desire, as always, to make clear to our readers what the position is.
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