The Press: The Squeeze

For the past several months, the supply of newsprint has tightened and the grey-market price has shot up. Last week, amid rumors of a newsprint shortage, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reluctantly announced: it can’t get the paper it needs and will have to ration advertising (old customers served first). Rationing would cut its volume 20% under last year’s. Said President George C. Diggers: “We figured we would save some newsprint by consolidating the Sunday papers (TIME, March 27), but we did not save enough to make up for the expansion of the daily Constitution . . . For a while, we bought extra supply at $160 a ton [whereas] the contract price is $104. But now that source has folded up and there is nothing to do but ration advertising.”