Smaller Papers?

Some newspapers tried hard to meet the 15%-plus cuts in newsprint use requested by WPB for 1943. Many did not. Result: a piddling overall reduction of only 5% plus. Last week U.S. newspapers got a peek at the bad news for 1944.

If WPB continues to follow the recommendations of its Newspaper Industry Advisory Committee, U.S. newspapers will be asked to cut newsprint use by an average fat 18% in next year's first quarter. The cut ranges from nothing for small papers to 24% (based on 1941 consumption and allowing for increased circulation) for larger ones. Readers will have no trouble detecting the workings of this austerity plan if newspapers follow it to the letter (which is, in view of their 1943 record, not too likely). Magazines, which met the paper shortage more promptly, already show it in narrower margins, lighter paper, fewer ads and frozen circulations.

The news came while many a publisher was scrambling frantically to find solutions to the problem. Some papers, like the Pittsburgh Press and the Knoxville News-Sentinel, have experimented with 30-lb. paper (standard is 32 lb.). Catch: only "standard newsprint" now enters the U.S. from Canada duty free.

Other papers, like the New York Daily News, have tested an "ersatz" newsprint made partially from old newspapers, either de-inked or not. There are hitches to this too: 1) most old newspapers now go into the manufacture of cardboard cartons; 2) door-to-door collection would be ineffectual and discouragingly difficult; 3) the operation is expensive.

Most drastic scheme tried yet: the Miami Herald's plan, launched last week, for printing a twelve-page "Victory Edition," devoid of all advertising except classified, each Monday. The Herald's usual Monday papers have been 20 pages.

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