How Big?

"Unwieldy size and staggering columns of type have driven hordes of people to the comforting refuge of the tabloids." This battle cry of tabloids was recently advanced by one of Bernarr Macfadden's subordinates on the New York Evening Graphic. Whether tabloids are a "comforting refuge" is questionable, but the fact remains that the full-sized newspapers have taken on an alarming bulk since the World War. They are not ashamed of their bulk--it represents increasing advertising revenue and new features; it grows bigger every day; it does not seem to fear the tabloid cry. Daily editions of 40, 48 and 56 pages are becoming commonplace in a half-dozen cities in the U. S. Sunday (or Saturday) editions of less than 100 pages are considered puny. The Sunday New York Times has appeared with 240 pages--the paper of which could easily make seven octavo volumes of 300 pages each. This bulk will not abate, according to Henry Alexander Wise Wood, who has taken out more patents on printing machinery than any other man. In last week's Editor & Publisher, he predicted the coming of "the 100-page daily newspaper-magazine" in less than ten years. Said he: "All the mechanical problems connected with issuing such a daily giant are solved. . . . In the battle between the newspaper and the weekly or monthly magazine, the magazine has already suffered defeat. The magazine of today is merely an agreeable survivor of the past. . . . Besides, more and more advertisable things are ever being created for the daily newspaper, metamorphosing it into a sort of magic bazaar filled with purchasable wonders. . . ."

No idle dreamer, Mr. Wood is shrewd enough to boom the fat daily as a necessary corollary to his new high-speed printing and feeding machinery. He is one of those manufacturers who take pride in combining the appearance of an English aristocrat with an up-to-the-moment knowledge of aeronautics, yachting, advertising, printing.