Abstract
A BROADSHEET recently issued by P.E.P. (Political and Economic Planning) gives a summary of elementary facts about the Press of Great Britain collected as a preliminary to a constructive investigation of the possibilities of improvements in the Press to meet modern needs. Including for this purpose the entire preparation and publication of newspapers and periodicals, although attention is concentrated mainly on the London daily newspapers, the survey emphasises the extent to which the Press has become an important industry, ranking in size with electricity supply and the manufacture of bricks and tiles and considerably above the brewing or the silk and rayon industry. In the decade 1921-32, its personnel in England and Wales rose from 56,488 to 79,558, and it is characterised by a high proportion of males to females, a low proportion of juvenile workers (less than 9 per cent) and an extremely high proportion of administrative staff (30 per cent), about one sixth of the total being professional workers, a figure four times the average for all industries. Unemployment is low, the net output in terms of money value very high and employment is largely concentrated in large units in a few of the great towns. The two most important points in a newspaper's finances are its. advertisement revenue and the price of newsprint, cost of ink being negligible. Production costs (largely wages) come third and editorial services fourth, being equalled for the larger newspapers by the cost of physical distribution. Industrially, the Press is thus healthier and more flourishing than other British industries, but on industrial grounds as well as on the ground of social responsibilities, there is a case for considering whether the financial structure cannot be simplified and made sounder.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Newspaper Production as an Industry. Nature 137, 25 (1936). https://doi.org/10.1038/137025c0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/137025c0