Trinity Mirror and FT raise cover prices

by Fiona Ramsay, Media Week 15-Jan-08

Two newspaper groups are pushing ahead with cover price increases this month, despite a gloomy set of ABCs for most newspapers in December.

Trinity Mirror last week raised the price of the Sunday Mirror from 90p
to 95p and The People from 85p to 90p, despite declines in December
circulation for both - The People dropped 12% year on year and the

Sunday Mirror 0.6% year on year.

Sources highlighted the Financial Times as a title to watch after it
raised its cover price by 20p to £1.50. But the paper's
performance beat the rest of the market in December, with increases of
1% month on month and 2.6% year on year, to 449,187.

The Daily Telegraph and The Herald lost the sales they gained in
November, while The Times dropped 21,633 sales in December.

There has been speculation that The Sun will end its cover price
promotion in London, the South East and Scotland in a bid to recoup
sales revenue amid circulation slumps.

Mark Hollinshead, managing director of the Scottish Daily Record and
Sunday Mail, slammed The Sun's discounting as "costly and ineffective".
News Group would not comment on price plans for The Sun.

A rival circulation manager said: "I am sure it will put the price up,
but it is a double-edged sword. It costs a fortune to cut the price. But
if it puts it up, it will lose more than the sales it gained from
discounting."

The Sun's price cut failed to keep its circulation above three million
in December, as revealed in Media Week (8 January). Confirmed
circulation was 2,985,672, down 3% month on month. The last time its
sales fell below three million was in 1974.

Separately, the ABC said regional free and paid newspapers can now
combine paid and free circulation figures on one certificate. It will
first be published in August.

- Daily Mirror - free jigsaw puzzles series, Raymond Briggs book The
Snowman, We Love Puzzles Magazine

- Sunday Mirror - Raymond Briggs book Father Christmas

- Daily Mail - Christmas collection DVDs, A Christmas Carol, and DVDs
collected from WHSmith or Tesco

- The Mail on Sunday - free DVD The Missionary, interactive quiz DVD

- News of the World - Asda voucher for free Alvin cuddly toy

- The Sun - Republic of Ireland:

- Free Aslan CD - Sunday Express

- Free Christmas tree from Focus DIY

- The Times - Republic of Ireland: The Millionairess DVD.