African American Newspapers In The 1930s Faced Many Hardships Gmat Reading Comprehension

Reading Passage Question

African American newspapers in the 1930s faced many hardships. For instance, knowing that buyers of African American papers also bought general-circulation papers, advertisers of consumer products often ignored African American publications. Advertisers’ discrimination did free the African American press from advertiser domination. Editors could print politically charged material more readily than could the large national dailies, which depended on advertisers’ ideological approval to secure revenues. Unfortunately, it also made the selling price of Black papers much higher than that of general-circulation dailies. Often as much as two-thirds of publication costs had to come from subscribers or subsidies from community politicians and other interest groups. And despite their editorial freedom, African American publishers often felt compelled to print a disproportionate amount of sensationalism, sports, and society news to boost circulation.

Reading Passage Question:
‘African American newspapers in the 1930s faced many hardships’ is a GMAT reading comprehension passage with answers. Candidates need a strong knowledge of English GMAT reading comprehension.
This GMAT Reading Comprehension consists of 7 comprehension questions.
The GMAT Reading Comprehension questions are designed for the purpose of testing candidates’ abilities in understanding, analyzing, and applying information or concepts. Candidates can actively prepare with the help of GMAT Reading Comprehension Practice Questions.

Questions and Solutions

  1. The passage suggests that if advertisers had more frequently purchased advertising in African American newspapers, then which of the following might have resulted?

I.African American newspapers would have given more attention to sports and society news than they did.

II.African American newspapers would have been available at lower prices than large national dailies were.

III. African American newspapers would have experienced constraints on their content similar to those experienced by large national dailies.

  1. I only
  2. III only
  3. I and II only
  4. I and III only
  5. II and III only

Answer: B
Explanation:
The passage suggests that if advertisers had more frequently purchased advertising in African American newspapers, African American newspapers might have experienced constraints on their content similar to those experienced by large national dailies. This is because large national dailies depended on advertisers' ideological approval to secure revenues, which could influence their content. There is no indication in the passage that increased advertising would lead to lower prices or a shift toward more sports and society news in African American newspapers.

  1. The author of the passage suggests which of the following about the “advertisers” (Highlighted) mentioned in the passage?
  1. They assumed that advertising in African American newspapers would not significantly increase the sales of their products.
  2. They failed to calculate accurately the circulation of African American newspapers.
  3. They did not take African Americans’ newspaper reading into account when making decisions about where to advertise.
  4. They avoided African American newspapers partly because of their sensationalism.
  5. They tried to persuade African American newspapers to lower the rates charged for advertising.

Answer: C
Explanation:
The passage suggests that advertisers of consumer products often ignored African American publications, indicating that they did not consider African Americans' newspaper reading habits when deciding where to advertise.

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