Declining advertising revenues and the rising price of newsprint have been blamed for a regional publisher’s decision to increase the cover price of a number of its titles.
JPIMedia has confirmed price increases for a “select” number of its newspapers, although the company has declined to say which ones or how many.
So far, only North-East dailies the Hartlepool Mail, Shields Gazette and Sunderland Echo have publicly confirmed the changes, with Joy Yates, the company’s editorial director for the region, publishing a piece explaining the decision to readers.
However JPI-owned national daily the i has also increased its price and HTFP understands that “tens” of other titles in the group have done the same, although most of its 200-plus local news brands are unaffected
The North-East dailies increased prices by between 2p-3p from Christmas Eve, with the Mail increasing from 70p to 73p, the Gazette from 83p to 85p and the Echo from 78p to 80p.
Weekday editions of the i increased in price from 60p to 65p from New Year’s Day, while the cost of Blackpool daily The Gazette has also risen from 85p to 90p, and the Lancashire Post from 80p to 83p.
Wrote Joy: “The reason for this increase is not merely that our own costs are rising – true though that is. Historically, the lion’s share of the costs of our journalism and the production of our titles has been met by advertising.
“Without that advertising, if the reader was to pay the full price then each issue of the Sunderland Echo would cost several pounds. But that subsidy we receive from advertising is decreasing in a digital age.
“So if we are to continue to deliver the exceptional, trusted local journalism which I know you value, we have to charge a little more for the paper to help offset the lower advertising revenue.
“We are, as ever, seeking to keep the increase to a minimum so we are constantly looking at ways to reduce our own costs provided they do not impact on the quality journalism you expect of us.”
JPI Media told HTFP the price rises would apply to a “select” number of titles but declined to say how many or which ones.
Richard Thomson, publishing director of JPIMedia, said: “Increasing the price of our newspapers is never an easy decision. Newsprint (paper) prices continued to increase throughout 2018 by circa 12pc and are expected to rise further this year. Due to this the costs of doing business have grown.
“We are committed to reinvesting in the quality of our journalism and ensure we deliver the trustworthy reporting our readers expect.
“As a result, we are introducing price increases to a number of our titles.”
Sign up for our free daily email bulletin
Follow HTFP on Twitter
Got a story? Email the Editor at
Also happening elsewhere – Archant has increased the EDP and Evening News by 5p to £1 and 85p respectively. The weekend EDP is also up by 10p. There comes a tipping point when newspapers’ annual increases put readers off and I feel we may now be arriving at it.
Report this comment
I notice that many jp front pages now have no news stories on the front. So the whole front page is a taster to the press releases pasted in further back. And they want to increase the price? I haven’t bought one for ten years.
Report this comment
“exceptional trusted local journalism” “committed to reinvesting in the quality of our journalism and ensure we deliver the trustworthy reporting our readers expect” – oh dear, don’t these bosses realise what has happened to local papers. I can assure them Joe Public has turned away from “user generated content” and so-called “trusted brands” never to return. More customers follow with every price increase and so embarrassed is JPI it won’t even confirm the price of its titles!
Report this comment
My local JP rag is free and has seen such a decline in quality over the last few years (funnily enough since the reporters moved ten miles off the patch) people don’t even use it to line cat litter trays any more.
Report this comment
So,does this mean that perhaps, approaching a new financial year..that more cost savings will not be applied?
And staffing levels will remain constant?
Report this comment
Sad to say that many would-be readers think local papers have become too expensive relative to their news value. I know of many people who used to buy their local paper weekly or daily but do not do so now – not just because of the price but because they can get their news from other outlets.
Report this comment
I work for one of the other big groups – only interested in magazine and digital revenues.
Report this comment
Fair comment Wordsmith, and also many Nationals are cheaper….
Report this comment
So the old JP goes out of business and what does the ‘new’ regime do? It gets out the begging bowl and asks readers to pay more for its increasingly slim and inferior products.
It beggars belief that they think the public will buy this idea – or their papers.
How long will it be before JPI start closing their small circulation weeklies with their exorbitant prices and thin, run-on-a-shoestring content?
Report this comment
Numerous price rises in Yorkshire too. The Halifax Courier is now £1.55! The Yorkshire Evening Post, possibly the worst performing regional daily in the country, has had it price lifted from 82p to 85p. The neighbouring Bradford T&A remains at 68p. Mindboggling stupidity on display here. Roll on the February ABCs!
Report this comment
Different name same suicidal policies. JPI are no different from JP. Trying to run local weeklies into the ground before closing them or putting them online where they will die anyway. I hope the Viking takes them to court and exposes their underhand administration deal.
Report this comment
Roger knightley.
I haven’t seen a proper front page story on my local JP rag for months. This is incredibly lazy (saves you the struggle to find a good splash). It is just a picture (often very dull) and a caption of some boring event.
One story had a one-line taster on front and the actual story was so unworthy it was on page 9. Who on earth is editing these publications or are they being controlled from Edinburgh?
Putting the price up will just insult the readers, who will do what they have been doing to JP papers in thousands for the past few years; stop buying them.
Maybe that’s the plan. Papercide.
Report this comment
I can’t recall the last time I saw my JP/JPI weekly with a splash which would have made me buy the paper. Yesterday I spent nearly 20 minutes trying to access a web page from the local daily on my iPad but there was something wrong with all the rubbish loading alongside it so it constantly froze. I gave up. So if people are not buying the paper, not able to use the website on devices which have been in use for the last six years, that’s a business model going nowhere.
Report this comment
Cover price rises usually indicate the sheer desperation when all else has failed, few are paying to buy copies and even fewer see them as effective as mediums. All it does is make current buyers reconsider the wisdom of paying more for less and doesn’t atttact non butyrate to purchase.
OneTimeSub I can’t see the DP and godawful NEN bring around in print this time next year, they’ve lost their once solid copy sales bases and hardly anyone advertised in them any longer as they’re not reaching the numbers businesses need to reach to get response.
Last throw of the dice for JPI,Archant and co
Report this comment
Media Pundit: You won’t find the Halifax Courier circulation figures in the ABCs. It was one of several JP newspapers withdrawn several years ago due to the huge drop in circulation figures – figures JPI can only dream of today!
Report this comment
wets yorks analyst:
With some papers selling only 10 per cent of their peak no wonder JP stopped publishing sales figures. If these prices become general I really fear for the oppressed JP staff, who know their papers are not nearly good enough but can do little about it. Most of those who knew what they were doing left or lost their jobs long ago, and it shows despite the considerable efforts of the rump that is left. The big problem is that the firm’s local papers are not truly local any more, just fill up with whatever they can. Then they put the price up!
Report this comment