Critical Reasoning

Which of the following most logically completes the argument below?

NowNews, although still the most popular magazine covering cultural events in Kalopolis, has recently suffered a significant drop in advertising revenue because of falling circulation. Many readers have begun buying a competing magazine that, at 50 cents per copy, costs less than NowNews at $1.50 per copy. In order to boost circulation and thus increase advertising revenue, NowNews's publisher has proposed making it available at no charge, but this proposal has a serious drawback, since _______.

(A) Those Kalopolis residents with the greatest interest in cultural events are regular readers of both magazines.
(B) One reason NowNews's circulation fell was that its competitor's reporting on cultural events was superior.
(C) The newsstands and stores that currently sell NowNews will no longer carry it if it is being given away for free.
(D) At present, 10 percent of the total number of copies of each issue of NowNews are distributed free to students on college campuses in the Kalopolis area.
(E) NowNews's competitor would begin to lose large amounts of money if it were forced to lower its cover price.

OA:C

This question involves a plan. The plan has the following aspects.

Reason For The Plan: Advertising revenue has fallen because of reduced circulation.

Goal Of The Plan: Increase circulation.

The Plan: Make the magazine available at no charge so that more people read it.

Now let's look for a drawback, a disadvantage of the plan or some reason the plan will not work.

(A) This does not indicate that the plan will not work. While certain residents already read both, the fact that circulation has fallen indicates that some residents are not reading NowNews. So there are residents who can decide to read NowNews, and so even though some already read both, there is room for increased circulation.

(B) This might indicate that the plan will not get all of the readers back, but it may still get some back, and thus its goal, increased circulation, would be achieved. In any case, this is not a drawback of the plan itself.

(C) As long as you are really being logical, you can be reasonable when doing CR questions, and figure out what would likely happen in a certain situation. When you consider the situation described here, reason dictates that if newsstands and stores are no longer stocking the magazine, residents will have reduced means of getting the magazine and fewer will read it. So rather than increase circulation, the plan may lead to decreased circulation, or at least the plan will work against itself. So this is a major drawback to the plan.

(D) While this indicates that some people already get the magazine for free, there are others who don't and who may choose to read it if it were available at no charge.

(E) Given what we know about business, we can conclude that this is not a drawback as far as the people at NowNews are concerned.

The correct answer is C.

Hi Marty,

Thanks for the great explanation.

I got stuck between B and C.

This is how I resolved it. Here is the analogy that I made.

Al has not been able to do well on the GMAT. Therfore to increase his score , he plans to take XYZ private tutors coaching.

To Weaken
A. One reason why he is not able to do well is his bascis are very weak
B. XYZ has a history of teaching substantial material that is out of gmat scope.

Goal: Increase his score
Plan: Take XYZ private tutors

We just wanna say XYZ private tutors will not help him acheive his goal. But 'A' does not in any way say whether XYZ will help. Learning the basics might help but will XYZ help? We cannot conclude anything.

Same thing happens between B and C in the original question, right? And another thing I notice often is 'if implemented' .In strengthen and Weaken questions, any choice that talks about something before the implementation part is wrong, so this would be another reason why B would be incorrect , right? We are evaluating the situation in terms of implementation.

Is my line of reasoning correct?

Thanks in advance,
Alchemist

Alchemist14 wrote:Hi Marty,

Thanks for the great explanation.

I got stuck between B and C.

This is how I resolved it. Here is the analogy that I made.

Al has not been able to do well on the GMAT. Therfore to increase his score , he plans to take XYZ private tutors coaching.

To Weaken
A. One reason why he is not able to do well is his bascis are very weak
B. XYZ has a history of teaching substantial material that is out of gmat scope.

Goal: Increase his score
Plan: Take XYZ private tutors

We just wanna say XYZ private tutors will not help him acheive his goal. But 'A' does not in any way say whether XYZ will help. Learning the basics might help but will XYZ help? We cannot conclude anything.

Same thing happens between B and C in the original question, right?

In a way your two choices and choices B and C are similar, yes. The question is about the effectiveness of the plan, not about the factors underlying the situation.

Actually, I find interesting how two rather different examples are so parallel in a key way.

And another thing I notice often is 'if implemented' .In strengthen and Weaken questions, any choice that talks about something before the implementation part is wrong, so this would be another reason why B would be incorrect , right? We are evaluating the situation in terms of implementation.

Is my line of reasoning correct?

Thanks in advance,
Alchemist

I guess I see what you are saying, and it sounds basically correct, though maybe I wouldn't agree exactly with your wording. I mean things that happen before implementation can in fact affect the success of the plan. So perhaps you could be a little more careful about or specific in what you are thinking and saying.