As a contribution to the reduction in the cost of
living Picture Post is to be reduced immediately from 6d. a week to 46. That is a drastic, but probably a wise, decision. The report of the Hulton Press published last Saturday showed that profit for the year amounted, before taxation, to £19,340 as against £321,767 in the previous year; no final dividend is being paid. The 61 is attributed, among other things, "to the heavy losses sustained on the periodical Picture Post in particular.' But why did Picture Post so fare ? From 1940 to 1950 Tom Hopkinson was Editor of the paper, and it prospered exceedingly; he left after a difference over policy. Ted Castle, who succeeded him, main- tained the general standard admirably; he left after a brief tenure of office on a question of policy. There is everything' to suggest that price was by no means the only factor in the reduction of the circulation of Picture Post from 1,225,858 'a week in the first half of 1951 to 935,829 in the first half of 1952, and the heavy financial loss already mentioned. The Directors of the Hulton Press may or may not agree with the dictum post hoc, propter hoc. Admittedly it does not apply invariably.
JANUS.
Previous page
