Richard Desmond's tabloid price cuts ‘ruining’ newsagents
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Version 0 of 1. The body representing the UK’s independent newsagents has expressed outrage at Richard Desmond’s move to slash the price of the Express and Star titles, saying its members are being “ruined” to the tune of millions of pounds from their sales fees being halved. Express Newspapers is to extend its attempt to spark a tabloid price war with rivals the Sun and Mirror by cutting the price of the Saturday Daily Express from 85p to 45p from 2 January and the Monday to Friday price of the Scottish Daily Express from 50p to 30p from 28 December. The move follows a decision in October to drop the price of the Daily Star, Saturday Star and Daily Star Sunday by 50% to 20p, 30p and 50p respectively. The National Federation of Retail Newsagents, which represents over 15,000 news and convenience stores in the UK and Ireland, expressed outrage at the decision because Express Newspapers is also slashing the per-copy fee that stockists receive for selling the titles. The NFRN said its members will lose “millions of pounds” as a result of the price cuts. “Once again, it seems Richard Desmond is making a rash decision with no consideration about the impact it will have on the newspaper market as a whole and, specifically, the retailers who have previously supported his titles,” said Ralph Patel, president of the NFRN. “Rather than injecting the promised excitement and long overdue extra sales into the newspaper category it appears that Richard Desmond is hell bent on ruining an industry that has helped earn him millions.” The NFRN estimates that sales of the Saturday Express will need to rise by as much as 90% to stand a chance of covering the loss of money from the price cut. According to unofficial figures, sales of the Monday to Friday edition of the Star are up about 10% to 12%, the Saturday edition by about 15% and the Daily Star Sunday by almost 20%. “There is no credible justification for such moves, especially given the fact that both the Sun and Mirror failed to follow suit when the price of the Star was halved,” said Patel. The NFRN said it will again remind members that they should review which titles they stock and re-consider the “space they give to products that do not deliver the profits needed to run successful businesses”. When Desmond dropped the price of the Star, the NFRN indicated that a large number of members might look to de-list the title. In reality, only a very limited number did so, with the National Newsagent Network, a group of 12 newsagents, the only one to publicly announce it would pull the Star. |