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Redtop price rises: The Sun goes up to 50p and Daily Mirror to 65p while Star stays at 20p

By Dominic Ponsford

Price rises from The Sun and the Daily Mirror which take hold today will cut the margin going to newsagents.

Retailers have also condemned Trinity Mirror's decision to keep the price of The New Day at 25p beyond the intial two-week trial period.

Today The Sun cover price rises from 40p to 50p and the Daily Mirror rises from 60p to 65p.

The rises come as the Daily Star keeps its price at 20p and continues to close the gap on its red-top rivals.

In January sales of The Sun fell 9.7 per cent year on year to 1.8m a day and the Daily Mirror fell 12.3 per cent to just over 800,000 a day. Meanwhile, the Daily Star rose 10.6 per cent year on year to just over 470,000 a day.

The retailer margins are reducing from 23.2 per cent to 22.3 per cent for both The Sun and Daily Mirror meaning retailers get 11.15p for each copy of The Sun and 14.5p for each copy of the Daily Mirror.

The cost of the Daily Mirror on a Saturday is going up by 10p to £1. In Scotland, the Mirror is rising to 70p during the week.

According to the National Federation of Retail Newsagents the prices rises come after a second carriage charge increase by distributors Menzies in the space of a year.

Senior executives from Trinity Mirror and News UK have been "summoned" to the NFRN’s National Executive Committee meeting next week to explain their actions face to face.

NFRN National President Ralph Patel said: “The Mail, Sun and Mirror are the biggest selling newspapers in the market and much of their success is down to the tremendous support they have been given by independent newsagents.

“At a time when independent retailers are having to absorb increases in the cost of having newspapers delivered to them, together with rises in payroll costs caused by hikes in the National Minimum Wage and the introduction of auto enrolment pension, this latest cut in terms will cost jobs."

The New Day is already selling for 50p in Scotland.

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