Tabloid war beckons as Star slashes cover price to 15p

by Daniel Farey-Jones,, Brand Republic 07-Jan-05, 09:00

LONDON – Express Newspapers has slashed the cover price of the Daily Star from 35p to 15p, in an attempt to regain circulation impetus that could spark the first red-top price war since the Daily Mirror disastrously took on The Sun.

The Star's head of marketing Sandra Campos said the change applied to weekday editions in the Carlton and Meridian areas and the intention was to test the market's response.

It is not clear for how long the reduced cover price, effective today, will stay in place.

The cut comes three days after Tim Pemberton joined Express Newspapers from Carat as its new group marketing director. He replaces Roland Agambar, who left in October to rejoin News Group Newspapers as the marketing director of The Sun and The Times.

Circulation has been slipping in recent months, but the Star's performance since Richard Desmond took over the title in November 2000 has been impressive.

At the time of the purchase, the Star's circulation was 627,317, and it currently stands at 846,169, an increase of 34.9% year on year, but down on August's record figure of 919,321.

The target has long been to push the Daily Star above the 1m mark, a target that, with the price cut, the paper's editor Dawn Neesom could now have a chance of hitting.

This could provoke a response from the Mirror and The Sun, which have current cover prices of 35p and 30p respectively.

Both are losing circulation, but Trinity Mirror's recent strategy has been to slightly increase the cover price in late 2003 from 32p to 35p where it has been maintained.

The Mirror's average net circulation for June-November 2004 was down 7.7% year on year to 1,797,779 while The Sun's was down 4.79% to 3,326,341.

In 2002, The Sun cut its price to 10p which prompted The Mirror to take its price down to 20p, ultimately costing Trinity Mirror nearly £20m.

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