The following appeared in an announcement issued by the publisher of The Mercury, a weekly newspaper:

“Since a competing lower-priced newspaper, The Bugle, was started five years ago, The Mercury’s circulation has
declined by 10,000 readers. The best way to get more people to read The Mercury is to reduce its price below that of
The Bugle, at least until circulation increases to former levels. The increased circulation of The Mercury will attract
more businesses to buy advertising space in the paper.”

Discuss how well reasoned . . . etc.

The argument presented states that the reduction in the price of The Mercury newspaper
will increase its circulation and increased circulation will also attract advertisement. However, the
reasoning of this argument fails to consider several key factors, on the basis of which argument can
be evaluated properly. Also, the argument doesn’t provide any statistics or evidence in support of
the assumptions made. Hence, it can be said that the argument is weak, flawed or unconvincing.
The first statement of the argument supposedly mentions that the reduction in the
circulation of The Mercury was only due to low price of the competing newspaper The Bugle. Here,
Author fails to consider several important key factors. For instance, the reduction in circulation of a
newspaper can be due to changing preference of people to read news from another medium like
internet, wherein they can get all the updates immediately and no need to wait until next day for
fresh news. Or it could be because of change in newspaper format or change in key employee of a
newspaper company like experienced news editor. So, there are various possible reasons which can
result in decline of newspaper circulation. Author has simply assumed that lower price of competing
newspaper is the only reason for this decline.
Secondly, the author claims that reduction in the price of The Mercury newspaper will
increase its circulation. Author doesn’t provide any support for this statement and also, doesn’t
consider the fact that reduction in price of newspaper can lead to some negative effects as well. For
example, recent survey from a leading business magazine concluded that Cheaper doesn’t always
attracts more customer. The survey asked people to purchase “Nano”, world’s cheapest car.
However, People responded that they think “Nano” as a symbol of lower status. So, specifically
cheaper price can also create doubt in customer’s mind regarding quality of that product and may
also find misaligned to their status.
Finally, the argument concluded by a statement that increased circulation of The Mercury
newspaper will attract businesses to buy advertisement. This statement seems correct to many but
the case mentioned here can be different. The businessman looks of a newspaper for advertisement
which has either reach among a wide demographic range or customer base similar to a potential
customer base of a newspaper.
In summary, the argument is flawed and therefore, it is unconvincing. To strengthen the
argument, the author must identify and explore several relevant factors beyond cost before
concluding that lowering subscription price will increase circulation, and therefore, increasing
advertising revenue.

Flaws:
1. Author has simply assumed that the reduction in the circulation of The Mercury is only because
of low price of competing newspaper The Bugle. (It may be due to changing preference of people
to read news from internet rather than newspaper or due to change of newspaper format or
change of employees like news editor.)
2. The argument assumes that the reduction in price will increase its circulation. Cheaper
 doesn’t always attract new customers as people might think it of low quality. Ex.: Nano
3. More circulation, more advertisements this logic looks fine on face values but on closer
observation, one can realize that it may not be the case. Advertisers may prefer the newspaper
which has reach among the wide demography or newspaper with similar customer base to their
business.