The Press
By RANDOLPH S. CHURCHILL WHEN in any industry one firm has got so far ahead that it has collared 60 or 70 per cent of the business, other firms in the same field cease to compete with the leader: the fight is for the second place. Such is the position of the 'International Business Machine cor- poration in the United States.
An analogous situation has emerged between the three heavy Sundays. The Sunday Times has no competition at eightpence with a circulation of one and a quarter million and its lush colour magazine thrown in free: it is the IBM in the field. The Observer (713,000)—sixpence—and the Sunday Telegraph (655,000)--fivepence—are lucked in a deadly struggle for second place. They don't waste much time looking at the Sun- daY Times thirty lengths ahead—particularly not the Berrys, to whom the paper once belonged and which the first Lord Camrose prized even more highly than he did the Daily Telegraph. Well, what are they going to do about it? The Observer is losing a little money, but with the Astors a little goes a long way. The Sunday Tele- graPh is losing a great deal of money, but they are buttressed by the enormous profit's of the 1) Telegraph and the proud Welsh obstinacy of Mr. Michael Berry. I hear that it is likely that the Sunday Telegraph will, in a few weeks, Put up its price to sixpence.: but this, though it may save some money, is hardly likely to prove a circulation-winner. Plainly something much more drastic is called for. if either the Observer or the Telegraph is to achieve the decisive Second position and in doing so knock the back- runner on the head for all time. Both papers have been considering the pos- 'atblllty of a colour supplement a la Lord Thom- Sun of Fleet. Whichever one could bring itself to this magisterial and immensely costly decision Would surely win, provided that simultaneously nt.tior and ruthless changes were made among the Lord Thomson of Fleet saw £800,000 go down the drain before his colour supplement started to justify itself financially. It would cost at least be to do the same job now. Indeed, it would t)(2 a good thing to set £2 million on one side if YOU wanted to be sure to make a job of it. Lord ,Emrrison of Fleet recently toyed with the idea (t) bringing out a second colour supplement to the e SmillaY Times, essentially designed for w H's and zeroed at the cosmetics advertisers. 8 advisers told him (doubtless in more discreet language) that that would be a little too big ev(ri for his enormous boots. Now, I have known Michael Berry and David Astotrust r since we were boys together at Eton (I that the Spectator's editor will not object tj_ his further manifestation of the old school 170 a.nd suggest that we all took part in making s2(1 Home Prime Minister). Oil and on I have da'eeni a good deal of David Astor and a great time of Michael Berry. I have, indeed, from to time, contributed to their newspapers. ' would judge that each of these middle-aged sprigs the nobility could produce the £2 Million mt. ',TY. Temperamentally, however, I think that Berry would find it less disagreeable than Mr. Astor. Whichever one does it would be well advised to do it quickly and to be first off the mark, since to come along four or five months later would obvibusly be excessively dis- advantageous. Last Saturday the Daily Herald, soon to be assassinated by Mr. Cecil Harmsworth King, had a most courageous leading article on the power workers' go-slow entitled 'Agreements must be honoured.' It preached a great deal of good sense, unfortunately to a small audience. Neither on Saturday nor on Monday did Mr. Cecil Harmsworth King leave any guidance on this (or any other) subjects to the more numerous readers of the Daily Mirror. ■ During my recent illness I have been watch- ing vigilantly to see whether Sir William Haley would eventually allow , his large university readership to learn of the elections to the Presi- dencies of the Oxford and Cambridge Unions. My patience was well rewarded. The rest of the press had mostly given both results by Saturday, March 7. The Times published the Oxford result five days later, on Thursday, March 12, and the Cambridge result nine days later on Monday, March 16. If you were a maiden aunt of one of the candidates and you resided overseas it would be a protracted and expensive business to keep abreast of The Times. And at the end of it, you probably could not afford to send a con- gratulatory or condolatory telegram. Do you think Mr. Gavin Astor ever notices these things? HEADLINE OF 7HE WI FK We don't want to boast but —Daily Express, Monday, IVI,Irch 23.
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