Daily Mail cover price up; Mail on Sunday unchanged

A trading statement this morning from Associated Newspapers reports that trading during April and the first three weeks of May had seen advertising revenues 5% down on last year – a disappointing outcome the industry may feel, given the Royal Wedding and Easter fell within the period this year. Advertising revenues for the thirteen weeks to 3rd July, 2011 were 7% below last year, with those for the five weeks of June down 9%.

A DMGT statement added an expectation that “the nervous consumer and retail market would continue through the summer and expressed caution about the outlook for the full year due to the volatile and uncertain market conditions faced by our UK consumer businesses.”

To mitigate ad revenue falls, DMGT is increasing the price of the Daily Mail Monday to Friday editions from 50p to 55p from Monday 18th July. There are no changes to the cover price of the Saturday edition or to The Mail on Sunday, which many expect to benefit most of all from the closure of the News of The World.

It would be interesting to know if a Mail on Sunday price increase had been planned – but was shelved after last week’s dramatic developments.

This is the first increase in the price of the Monday to Friday Daily Mail since April 2008.