A newsagents’ trade body has branded Newsquest “arrogant” after the regional publisher cut the terms offered to retailers for two of its Yorkshire weeklies.
Newsquest has this week increased the cover price of the Craven Herald from 75p to £1 and the Keighley News from 65p to 80p.
However retailers’ share of both papers has been cut, with newsagents getting 22 per cent for every copy of the Herald sold, down from 26.5 per cent, and 23.5 per cent for the News, down from 27.2 per cent.
The National Federation of Retail Newsagents said that, while many other news groups had put up cover prices recently, they had tended to offer the same terms to retailers.
Alan Smith, chairman of the NFRN’s news operations committee, said: “To hike up the prices of these two Yorkshire titles in such economically challenging times and, at the same time, turn your back on the very people you rely on to sell your papers is beyond contempt. We are, frankly, stunned that Newsquest can so arrogantly dismiss the concerns of both the readers of these two titles and the retailers who support them.”
Newsquest was unavailable for comment.
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