The Times announced yesterday that it is to cut its cover price indefinitely from 45p to 30p on weekdays and from 50p to 40p on Saturdays, after the experimental reduction in Kent. (Newsline 2/8) At 30p the Times will be 2p cheaper than the middle market papers the Daily Mail and the Daily Express, and substantially cheaper than the other broadsheet papers. The Guardian and the Independent currently cost 45p and the Telegraph 48p.
This price reduction follows shortly after the discount on cover price from the Sun, which is also owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News International. The Times’ latest ABC figures for F-JL92 are 364,000, in third place behind The Guardian, at 412,000, and The Telegraph, at 1,022,000. Rivals of The Times will be pressured to follow suit; however, in a front page plea to its readers for support, The Independent said that this would not be commercially possible.
The announcement of the cover price coincided with Rupert Murdoch’s launch of the multi-channels package (Newsline 1/9), at which he revealed details of the launch of a second sports satellite channel in the UK.
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