Illinois newspaper directory. History of the Illinois press association

Illinois Newspaper Dirictory and History"This same newspaper with increased hour cost for 1917 and with a 'tighter' paper,showed a selling price of 32.5 cents an inch."Another similar paper where editorial and reportorial expense is small showed aselling price of 24.5 cents for 1916 and 26.1 cents for 1917."One tri- weekly paper which published 1,134 pages in 1916, showed a sellingprice of 23.3 cents an inch and 26.5 cents for 1917."Another eight-page home print paper with large receipts from legals in 1916showed a selling price of 19.2 cents, while in 1917 with curtailed receipts from legalsshowed a selling price of 30 cents an inch."The cost per page is a valuable thing to know when confronted with the questionof adding additional pages to carry a peak load of advertising. Without this informationthe publisher is too apt to issue two or four additional pages, never knowing thatthe added advertising revenue may not cover half of the additional cost of production.The following are the page costs of some of the country weeklies for 1916:Class A paper (8 and 12 page, 2,000-3,000 circulation) .... $15.03Class A paper .... 14.95Tri-weekly paper (1,134 pages). ... 13.25Class B paper (8 pages, 1,000-1,500 circulation) .... 12.11Class B paper 12.01"That you may not be misled by the above page costs, I would call your attentionto the fact that the increased cost of production and tightening of the paper is verymaterially increasing the page cost. In the case of the Class A paper with a page cost of$15.03 for 1916, the cost jumped to $17.82 in 1917. The one with a page cost of$14.95 jumped to $18.56 in 1917. The only data I have on a class B paper shows anincreased page cost from $12.01 to $15.90 in 1917."Many of the country publishers attribute their increased newspaper cost largelyto the increased cost of print paper, but this is not the case. In our own office the costof print paper per page was:Print Paper1917 $ 1.7371916 1.017.Increased cost of print $ .720Production Costs1917 per page. $17.821916 per page .. 15.03Print increase .72Increased hour costs and tightening of paper . 2.07$17.82"By the above figures it will be seen that the increase due to higher price of printpaper was only 2 5 percent, while 75 percent was due to increased hour costs and tighteningof the paper.""Print Paper" was discussed by J. L. Fearing, Western Manager of the InternationalPaper Company, and by Senator Thomas Rees, Illinois State Register, Springfield. TheHonorable George Hosmer, chairman of the Legislative Committee of the NationalEditorial Association, Denver, Colorado, gave an address touching on the subjects ofnational legislation, print paper, and postal rates.203