Graduation To Rotary Printing

Observant readers will notice a number of changes in this issue. These result from Salient's now being printed on one of the fastest rotary presses in New Zealand. In only a few minutes the two and a half storey high giant illustrated on this page will print, fold and trim Salient—an operation which formerly took seven working days.

The only really noticeable difference will be in the paper's margins—these were previously guillotined exactly whereas rotary-trimmed copies have slightly rough edges.

However, the opportunity has been taken to make some rearrangements in pages.

Pages 3 and 10 now become latest news pages and Editorials and letters have been shifted to the centre pages, which have been adjusted to from a "centre spread."

Students gain much that is important from the change. Previous issues of Salient have been criticised, justifiably, for their low news content. Now only a weekend separates the news deadline from the printing date.

Previously, news deadlines had been an incredible 16 days before publishing date. Now, Salient can and will give full coverage to the latest student news.

Other innovations will be found in this issue. We hope that Science students will welcome our interest in Science—enough to write for and about our feature. We would remind them, too, of our announced intention to publish, shortly after the May holidays, a special Science supplement along the lines of the successful Arts in New Zealand issue last year.

We are now publishing on Tuesdays, so that all future issues Will appear one day ahead of announced printing dates.

Page 3 will now have a special significance of its own, for it (and its sister page, page 10) will be the last to be set in type. On this page you will find the latest student news, produced to a deadline which only the dailies can beat.

These advances have been possible because Salient's circulation—nearly trebled through the new subscription system — has made it economic to print Salient on a newspaper press.

This new system has been an unqualified success, with near-saturation circulation on the university campus, and increased interest from outsiders. One or two students have criticised the scheme from an idealistic point of view. While we have given them space to make their argument, now would seem an opportune time to point out that all the arguments they have so far put forward were considered and rejected by the Publications Committee, the Executive, a Special General Meeting, and the University Council (in that order) last year. The first rule of newspaper publishing is that economics, not ideals, control the life or death of papers.—Editors.