The Press: Penny-Wise

Is there a way to get more money for a newspaper without making the reader scream? Experience suggests otherwise. When New York's afternoon dailies went from a nickel to a dime in 1956, all three took circulation losses so severe that not one of them has climbed back to its old level. After a more timid price boost—from a nickel to 7¢—in 1952, two of Detroit's three papers spent years recovering lost ground, and the third-ranking Times has still not recovered. Yet a fortnight ago, all three Detroit papers raised prices again, and not only got away with it but last...

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