GMAT Essays (AWA)

"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 claims that sales of The Mercury declined since a competing lower priced newspaper The Bugle was launched five years ago. The above argument also states that The Mercury plans to overcome this situation by reducing its price, which will directly result in an increased circulation. Several key reasons that can affect The Mercury's circulation have not been into consideration here and hence, the argument relies on assumptions for which there is no clear evidence.

First, the argument readily assumes that The Mercury's circulation declined by 10000 readers due to the price of The Bugle over a span of five years. There is no evidence provided to show that this decline was not a sudden one. For instance, it may be the case that the circulation was impacted only recently due to local distribution issues. The Mercury may have lost business with some of its local distributors who catered to a wide area and this in turn impacted the circulation. Hence, reducing the price of newspaper is not going to help in increasing the circulation figures until it makes up for the loss in the distribution network.

Secondly, price may not be the only factor due to which the circulation reduced. Newspapers are major a source of important information and any compromise on the quality of information provided will lead to adverse effects. For example, good content, latest news, up to date information on the market, weather forecasts etc are some of the reasons that influence the reader's preferences. Clearly, the lack of good content in the newspaper is not going to help in increasing the circulation and enticing businesses to invest in ad space.

Again, one cannot deny that competitive pricing of newspapers lures businesses to invest in ad space in any paper. The argument does not provide us any evidence to support the claim that increased circulation is the only criteria that makes business invest in ad space. While business may definitely consider investing in ad space based on the circulation figures, it may also consider the brand loyalty and goodwill of the newspaper. In fact, one of the major factors that can influence the decision to invest is also the pricing that the newspaper offers for the ad space. It is not clear whether The Mercury offers competitive rates for advertising and hence, we cannot be certain that the increase in circulation is directly going to result in an increase in investment by businesses.

Therefore, we cannot be certain that reducing the price of The Mercury is going to help increase circulation and attract more investors. Without full knowledge of all the contributing factors it is hard to conclude the reasons for reduced circulation numbers. Hence, the argument is weak and flawed.

Thank you brian for your feedback.
i have gone through the link you suggested. Looks like I've got to work on this much harder.
Will really appreciate if you can point out some really obvious flaws.

Thanks again,
Shri