Trinity Mirror and FT raise cover prices

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.