UK national newspaper cover prices have increased by an average of 10.2% compared to January 2024, nearly three times the rate of other consumer prices.
Daily newspapers’ weekday editions saw prices rise by an average of 11.2% compared to a year ago, while Saturday editions increased by 8.4% and Sunday editions were up by 11.2%
Consumer price inflation was reported as 3.6% in the year to December 2025, with food and non-alcoholic beverages up 4.5% and alcohol and tobacco up 4%. Inflation did not rise above 3.8% throughout the year.
Six editions kept their cover prices the same throughout the year, including The Times’ Saturday edition, The Sunday Times, all editions of The Daily Telegraph and The Financial Times.
FT Weekend, which remains the most expensive title among UK-wide national papers, increased its price in the past year by 5.9%, after it kept its price level from January 2024 to January 2025. It has overtaken the average cost of a 175ml glass of wine in the UK since last year.
(Press Gazette’s comparison is for the main UK-wide national newspapers, excluding Scottish papers like the Daily Record.)
In percentage terms, the biggest price increase was at the Daily Star, which increased by 27.3% to £1.40 (previously £1.10). The title has undergone a major print and digital redesign under editor Ben Rankin in the last year, after he joined the title in March. The redesign included the end of its page three models and a seven-day-a-week horse racing pullout. The paper continues to see print circulation fall alongside other national titles in the UK.
Reach slapped a 21.4% price increase across its Sunday titles: Sunday Express, Sunday Mirror and Sunday People, with all papers seeing a cost rise from £2.80 to £3.40.
These titles, plus the Saturday edition of Reach’s Daily Mirror, saw the biggest price increase at a 60p rise.
Sunday titles are continuously seeing circulation declines each month, according to ABC figures, with Reach titles hit the most in January.
Sunday People saw year-on-year circulation decline of more than a quarter (25.2%) for the second month in a row, followed by Sunday Mirror (down 22.7%) and Sunday Express (down 22.5%). In 2024 annual results for Reach, which publishes more than 100 newspaper titles, print still comprised the majority of revenue at 75%.
It would now cost £173 to buy a copy of every UK national newspaper on each day for one week, compared to £159.20 a year ago and £144.80 two years ago.
In the past decade, since 2016, national newspaper prices have gone up by an average of 178% (not including The Independent, which went out of print in 2016).
The average prices for daily newspapers saw a higher increase at 200%, while Sunday titles (not including weekend editions) grew by 107.8% on average.
It would now cost £22.50 to buy every daily national, up by 128.4% from a decade ago when it cost £9.85 (not including The Independent).
Across the ten Saturday papers in the market (including i Weekend and FT Weekend), the price increase was an average of 8.4% compared to January 2025 and 196.9% compared to 2016.
The highest ten-year change across dailies was the Daily Star at 600%, from 20p to £1.40. Among Saturday titles, the Daily Star also saw the highest price increase across the decade, up 600% from 30p to £2.10. The lowest increase was at the Financial Times, which has seen a cover price increase of 37% from £2.70 to £3.70.
It would cost £31.20 to buy every Saturday paper together, up from £29.20 in 2025 (increase of 6.8%) last year and £13.85 in 2016, meaning growth of 125.3% across the decade.
Among the Sunday titles, there was cover price growth of 11.2% in the past year and 132% in the past ten years. The highest ten-year change was at the Daily Star Sunday, up 380% from 50p to £2.40. The lowest was at the Mail on Sunday, which increased by 43.8%.
The Sunday papers would now cost £29.30 to buy together, up 10.6% from £26.50 in 2025, and 102.1% in 2015 when it would have cost £14.50.
See below for the full dataset showing the price changes of the past ten-plus years:
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