The Press: Up Again

Since World War II, Canadian newsprint prices have shot up from $61 per ton in New York to $116. After last July’s $10 boost, U.S. publishers, who get 90% of their newsprint from Canada, complained so vehemently that the Canadian and U.S. governments agreed to consult before any new price rise. But last week came another piece of bad news: the Canadian government authorized an increase of another $10 next month. To justify the price hike, newsprint makers explained that at the time of the last boost, $116 in U.S. money was worth $123.40 Canadian. But since then, the rise in value of the Canadian dollar—now worth 1½% more than the U.S.—makes the $116 worth only $114.30 Canadian, while their own production costs, which must be paid in Canadian dollars, have kept rising.

U.S. publishers were alarmed. Said Cleveland’s Charles F. McCahill, president of the American Newspaper Publishers Association: the increase will drive “many newspapers from the black into the red.” OPS Boss Ellis Arnall, even more gloomy, said: “[It] will drive many small . . . newspapers out of business.” Some publishers feared that they would have to raise their advertising and subscription rates as the only way to offset the big new bite, which will add an estimated $50 million a year to their publishing costs.