The Press: The High Cost of Publishing

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Mechanical unions still resist production change, e.g., a publisher who buys a new. high-speed press often finds that the union requires so many unnecessary men to run it that he loses rather than saves money. But even such diehards as the International Typographical Union have begun to give in to progress. I.T.U.. which opposed TTS circuits at first, now goes along with TTS. simply tries to acquire jurisdiction over TTS men.

Survival. Most publishers, even those who have been squeezed hardest, hope that the worst is over. After its long and uninterrupted rise, newsprint is probably at its peak price, and unions have been scaling down their annual demands. The 25,000-member American Newspaper Guild has taken the stand that "whenever a publisher can show that the survival of his newspaper is in danger, the Guild stands ready to cooperate in any way possible to keep the paper alive." Nevertheless, more deaths are in the offing. Says George C. Biggers, boss of the Atlanta Journal and Constitution, which have the biggest combined circulation (430,171) in the South: "In every city of half a million population or less where there is more than one newspaper ownership, consolidation may be expected."