The print circulation of The World Tribune has shown a 40 percent decl

Question

The print circulation of The World Tribune has shown a 40 percent decline in the past two years. However, the traffic on the newspaper's website has increased by 30 percent during the same period. The website contains many news sections and blogs that are not featured in the print newspaper but are the most read pages of the website. Therefore, to maintain its profits, the newspaper has decided to discontinue its still-profitable print edition and to introduce more content on the website that is similar to the exclusive content on the most read pages of the website.

Which one of the following is an assumption on which the decision of The World Tribune depends?

A The print circulation of the newspaper would not have declined further in the near future.
B To access the content on the newspaper's website, the readers of the website will be willing to pay a monthly subscription fees that is equal to the revenue that the print edition of the newspaper earned per reader each month.
C The print circulation of the newspaper declined in the past two years because the newspaper's website offered more interesting content.
D The revenue earned from increased website traffic will not be less than the revenue lost by discontinuing the print edition.
E Introducing more content similar to the exclusive content on the most read pages of the website will increase the newspaper's website traffic further.

sarthakk07 · Answer

I think the option is D, can you please have a look

Kanika3agg · Answer

Pre-thinking - The newspaper has reasons to believe that its profits will decline in the near future as it said that "to maintain its profits, it will discontinue the still profitable print circulation of the newspaper and increase its most read content on the website". 
Now, could it have maintained its profits even with the print circulation? We dont know but we do know that the current way of things would have deteriorated over time. So, for that they introduced some measures. 
Now, with those measures in place, two things will happen - the cost of the print circulation will be cut and the cost of adding new content on the website will be added. 
So, Old Profits = Revenue(print circulation + website) - Cost(print circulation + website maintenance)
New Profits = Revenue(website) - Cost(increased Website maintenance due to adding of new content)

So for old profits to match the new profits, it is mandatory that the revenue from the website should increase with the new content. Therefore, website traffic should increase.

The answer is E.

ak298 · Answer

The official explanation is too huge to post here. You can find it  here

The reasoning for selection between the answer choices is as follows:
A: This option is incorrect. Suppose the print circulation of the newspaper would have declined further in the near future. Then, the perception that the Print Mode is a sinking business would be further strengthened and the newspaper's decision to kill the Print Mode would be validated. So, if we Negate this answer choice, the conclusion (= decision made by the newspaper) stands strengthened, instead of being demolished. Therefore, this answer choice fails the Negation Test.
B: This option is incorrect. Let the revenue that the print edition of the newspaper earned per reader each month (at the time of the decision) be dollars. Suppose the readers of the newspaper's website are not willing to pay a subscription fees of dollars per month for access to the website content. Does this necessarily mean that the newspaper will not be able to maintain its profits? No. For example, suppose the readers of the website are only willing to pay a monthly subscription fees of dollars. If the number of website readers is more than ten times the number of print-edition readers (which it very well might be, because, from the argument, we only know the percentage changes in readership of the print-edition and the website traffic, and not the actual numbers), then the revenue from the website subscription fees will be greater than the revenue from the print-edition. If the costs of the website are not greater than the costs of the print-edition, then the profits from the website will be greater than the profits that the print-edition earned at the time of the decision. Therefore, negating this answer choice does not necessarily impact the conclusion.
C: This option is incorrect. Suppose the print circulation did not decline in the past two years because of the content offered in the Web Mode but due to some other reason. The facts of the case still remain the same – the print circulation was declining, the Web Mode traffic was increasing, and the newspaper wanted to maintain its profits. So, negating this answer choice has no impact whatsoever on the conclusion drawn.
D: This option is incorrect. Suppose the revenue earned from increased website traffic is indeed less than the revenue lost by discontinuing the print edition. However, if the costs incurred by the newspaper for the Web Mode are far lesser than those for the Print Mode, then profits earned by the newspaper for the Web Mode can still be greater than or equal to the profits earned for the Print Mode. Therefore, the conclusion ("to maintain profits," kill the Print Mode and put more of XYZ type of traffic-increasing content on the Web Mode) can still stand. Therefore, this answer choice fails the Negation Test.
E: This option is correct. Suppose that introducing more content similar to the exclusive content on the most read pages of the website will not increase the newspaper's website traffic further. The newspaper had assumed: (More such content --> More Web Traffic --> More Profit from Web-Mode that would at least offset the loss of profit from Print-mode). The negation of this answer choice breaks this chain of assumptions and therefore suggests that the newspaper's decision may not result in greater profit from Web-Mode that would at least offset the loss of profit from Print-Mode. Therefore, the profits of the newspaper may not be maintained. The negation of this answer choice substantially weakens the decision made by the newspaper. Therefore, this answer choice represents a necessary assumption on which this decision depends.

Correct answer is E.

deep31993 · Answer

Answer should be D. Can someone post an official explanation from LSAT?

ak298 · Answer

The answer posted is the official one. Please check out the link given for the complete explanation.

sarthakk07 · Answer

Answer is E,

Revenue is not equal profit, We need to consider that even if the revenue is increased from Website, cost incurred to come up with website is not informed in the stimulus, therefore hard to say anything conclusive about profit.

Therefore the only option left is E

ajayvikram4628 · Answer

Option D states that Revenue from online version is not less than the revenue from print version. This is not true

Say revenue from print version was 100 along with 80 cost, thereby giving profit of 20. Whereas for website version, revenue was 40 and cost was 10, resulting in 30 profit. Now to maintain same level of profit, revenue needs to go from 40 to 60, but still it is less than revenue from print version.

So, it is not an assumption

Posted from my mobile device

tinbq · Answer

I cannot find any choice giving reasons to believe that profit from increase traffic will be greater than profit from current print edition.

jingzhao8902 · Answer

Agreed, it should be D and it is very clear.

The conclusion of the premise is that the company should discontinuing its printing edition and focus on its online edition, in order to maintain profits. As such, the answer should be something to do with the profit, but the traffic.

jingzhao8902 · Answer

You are right on the old profits and new profits formulas. To use your argument, does higher website traffic translate into higher profit?

VerbalBot · Answer

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The print circulation of The World Tribune has shown a 40 percent decl

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