Following several years of declining advertising sales, the Greenvile

Conclusion:
The reorganization caused the improvement in ad sales.

Rephrase the answer choices as extreme STATEMENTS.
Rephrased as an extreme statement, the correct answer will STRENGTHEN OR WEAKEN the conclusion.
Note:
any = at least one

A: A large proportion of the total revenue of the Greenvile Times is generated by advertising sales.
This statement does not strengthen or weaken the conclusion that the reorganization caused the improvement in ad sales.

B: The circulation of the Greenvile Times has increased substantially in the last two years.
This statement offers an ALTERNATE EXPLANATION for the increase in ad sales, WEAKENING conclusion that
that the reorganization caused the improvement in ad sales.

C: The computer industry accounts for the largest proportion of the newspaper's advertising sales.
This statement does not strengthen or weaken the conclusion that the reorganization caused the improvement in ad sales.

D: At least one of the sales representatives of the Greenvile Times has a standing order with the Times for a fixed amount of advertising per month.
This statement does not strengthen or weaken the conclusion that the reorganization caused the improvement in ad sales.

E: Among the advertisers in the Greenvile Times, there are many more types of retail business than types of industrial business.
This statement does not strengthen or weaken the conclusion that the reorganization caused the improvement in ad sales.

Rephrased as a statement, only B strengthens or weakens the conclusion that the reorganization caused the improvement in ad sales.

The OE:

The reasoning: What additional evidence would help determine the source of the increased revenue? In order to attribute to the reorganization of the sales force, other possible causes must be eliminated. (I was headed this direction though). Newspapers advertising rates are linked to circulation; when circulation increases, higher rates can be charged and revenues will increase. (I though prior knowledge is NOT required in GMAT???) An alternative explanation might be a significant rise in circulation, so it would be particularly helpful to know if circulation had increased.

B: Correct. This statement provides another possible explanation for increased revenue of advertising sales, and so the answer to this question would help to clarifiy the reason for the increased revenue.

Can someone please provide a line of reasoning for eliminating choice D ??

We are told that revenue from advertising sales has increased. We need to explain that increase. Was it caused by the reorganization or by something else?

Choice (D) does not provide an alternative explanation for the increased revenues. If anything, choice (D) explains why revenues would NOT increase (since there is a FIXED amount of advertising per month).

Since it neither provides an alternative explanation nor suggests whether "the improvement in advertising sales can properly be attributed to the reorganization", choice (D) is irrelevant.

Hey nightblade354

Can you please explain why B is OA and why option D is worng ?

teaserbae,

Please see Gmatninja's post as it is quite helpful. In short, (D) doesn't do anything for us. If we know that some do have set orders, that's great. But it doesn't explain how revenue increased (this would keep it flat). The increase, then, could have been from advertising, but it could have been from something else. All we know is that something is causing an increase, and it isn't those currently on a contract. So this leaves way too much room for assumption and ambiguity.

Does this help?

1. Old strategy - by geography
2. New strategy(after reorganisation) - by industry

And we have to prove that as a result of the reorganisation, the sales of revenue increased.

And that's why I had chosen option C as my answer as it talked about industry. If C was valid, it would mean that the focus on industry helped as it accounted for the large proportion of newspaper sales? isn't this right? Could someone please help to explain why A is correct?

Quick note: the OA for this question is (B), so I'll explain why (B) is correct.

Take another look at the exact wording of the question: "In assessing whether the improvement in advertising sales can properly be attributed to the reorganization, it would be most helpful to find out which of the following?"

This is different than saying we "have to prove that as a result of the reorganisation, the sales of revenue increased." We are not trying to prove anything, but rather assess whether the the improvement in sales can be attributed to the reorganization. To do this, we are looking for a question that, if answered, would shed more light on the cause of the increase in advertising revenue.

With this in mind, take another look at (C):

Would answering this question help us to assess whether the reorganization accounts for the increase in advertising revenue? Does it make a difference whether the "largest proportion of the newspaper's advertising sales" comes from restaurants, or clothing shops, or car dealerships, or any other type of industry?

Simply put: no, the answer to this question does not shed light on why the advertising revenues have increased. Any one of those options could account for the largest proportion of sales, and it would not affect our assessment of how the reorganization impacted the advertising revenue. (C) is out.

Now, look again at (B):

Again, we need to ask: does answering this question help us to assess whether the reorganization accounts for the increase in advertising revenue?

If the circulation of the newspaper has increased substantially in the past two years, then maybe more retailers have elected to advertise their businesses in the paper. Or, maybe the newspaper can charge more for advertisements that are now reaching a greater audience. This provides an alternative explanation to the increase in advertising revenue -- maybe the increase had nothing at all to do with the reorganization of the sales representatives. This would weaken the argument that the improvement in advertising sales can properly be attributed to the reorganization.

If, on the other hand, the circulation has not increased substantially in the past two years, then this alternative explanation would not be introduced. The argument that the improvement in advertising sales can properly be attributed to the reorganization would be stronger if circulation has not increased substantially.

Finding out the answer to the question posed in (B) would help us assess whether the reorganization accounts for the increase in advertising revenue, so (B) is the correct answer.

I hope that helps!

GMATNinja can you give few options which can prove that sales increased because of reorganization ?

From the information in the passage, there is no way of proving sales increased because of the information. Thankfully, we're not asked to prove this.

We're asked to identify which answer choice would provide the most useful information in determining whether the increase in advertising sales can properly be attributed to the reorganization.

In other words, we can eliminate an answer choice if that information would not help us decide whether the reorganization was a success.

For example, (A) tells us:

We're not interested in the proportion of the total revenue of the Greenville Times generated by advertising sales. We're interested in why the total revenue generated by advertising sales has increased.

Having the information in this answer choice would NOT help determine whether the reorganization caused the increase in advertising sales, so we can eliminate (A).

Continuing this process for the other answer choices will show why (B) is the correct answer.

I hope that helps!

Thanks GMATNinja, but actually my doubt was that if the question asked us to find the option which can prove that sales got increased because of reorganization, then what could be the possible options to support this claim? Just wanted to get an idea.

I am very confused for the answer choice C
As in C --meaning derived from C is:
*If we the share from each business say industrial and retailing then they must have worked upon it by concentrating on particular type of field.
so ,why this is the wrong choice as it will strengthen our conclusion ---(the advertising sales from the GT are high because of their re-organisation of staff)
In B they said about the circulation of GT magazine how it strength the conclusion that re organisation is the cause for more sales in GT.
Thanks in advance for the replies from all the experts .
Kudos please.

We're very hesitant to offer possible answers to hypothetical questions. The point of a CR question is to examine the passage and find the best answer choice to the question written, based on the information available.

There are several risks in trying to think of a possible answer before examining the answer choices. You may end up wasting time by eliminating every answer choice if none of them match your answer. Alternatively, you might prejudice yourself against the correct answer if it doesn't match the one you've thought of.

It's far better to focus on the question you've been asked and attempt to eliminate each answer choice in turn independently, based on the information in the passage. We've gone through the process we recommend using for CR questions, and the reasons why we recommend this method, in this post.


We've written an explanation of why (C) is not the correct answer in this post -- take a look and let us know if you have any further questions.

I hope that helps!

Can someone please explain why A is incorrect?
May be the proportion earlier was lesser and after the re- organisation the proportion has actually increased. This tells us that the advertising sales has increased if we have a larger proportion

VeritasKarishma LogicGuru1 ChiranjeevSingh
GMATNinja

please explain option B

for evaluate it should answer two extremes
if circulation increased then it weakens the reorganization plan

but if circulation not increased how it strengthens there may be possibility that for existing clients they may charge more therefore revenue would increased
there is possibility if they don't charge more then it will strengthens

i'm bit confused

saby1410

Sales were declining for many years.
Sales force was organised geographically.
Reorganization made each sales representative deal with only one type of industry (about which he knew)

Observation: After the reorganization, revenue from advertising sales increased.

Did it increase because of reorganisation?

(A) What proportion of the total revenue of the Greenvile Times is generated by advertising sales?

Doesn't tell us why the revenue increased.

(B) Has the circulation of the Greenvile Times increased substantially in the last two years?

If the circulation has increased in the last two years, that could be the reason for increased advertising revenue. Since the paper has become more popular, more people are advertising in it. Then the reorganisation may not be the reason for increased revenues.
Yes, the "two years" thing threw me off but think about it - 'has the circulation increased in the last two years' means 'over the last two years, has the circulation increased'. So it asks if in the relatively recent times, is the circulation increasing?
If yes, it could be the reason for increased advertising in the paper.
If no, then it is more likely that reorganisation is the reason. No does not establish that reorganisation is the reason but makes it more likely.
This question rules out another reason and hence adds value to the conversation.

(C) Among all types of industry and retailing that use the Greenvile Times as an advertising vehicle, which type accounts for the largest proportion of the newspaper's advertising sales?

Irrelevant. We need to know about the "increase" - where it came from and how.

(D) Do any clients of the sales representatives of the Greenvile Times have a standing order with the Times for a fixed amount of advertising per month?

Not relevant. If any clients have standing orders, that will bring in consistent revenue month after month so revenues have a fixed component. If no clients have standing orders, revenue will just freely fluctuate and will be completely variable. In any case, it doesn't help us figure out why revenue increased.

(E) Among the advertisers in the Greenvile Times are there more types of retail business or more types of industrial business?

It doesn't matter. If there are more retail, it doesn't say why the revenue increased. If there are more industrial, it again doesn't say why the revenue increased.

Answer (B)

Take a closer look at (A):


Although (A) would give us information regarding the current proportion of total revenue derived from advertising sales, it will not tell us how that proportion has changed as a result of the reorganization.

Even if (A) did tell us the change in the proportion of total revenue derived from advertising sales, it would be of little value. First, we already know that advertising sales have increased (see the last sentence of the passage). Second, a greater proportion of revenue derived from advertising sales would not, by itself, mean that advertising sales have increased. It’s possible that total revenue has decreased significantly and advertising sales have remained constant (or even decreased slightly, but less than total revenue). In that case, advertising sales could decrease but still account for a greater proportion of the total revenue.

For those reasons, we can eliminate (A).

I hope that helps!