The NFRN has renewed calls for a review into fairness in the newspaper supply chain following an announcement that the cover price of the Sunday Mirror and Sunday People will rise and retail terms will be cut.

The titles’ publisher, Reach, told the trade that both newspapers will increase their prices by 10p to £1.80 each from this weekend, while the percentage terms that retailers receive will be reduced from 20.5% to 20%. The cash margin received per copy will go up from 34.85p per copy to 36p.

Highlighting independent retailers’ disappointment with Reach’s newspaper retail terms cut, NFRN national president Stuart Reddish said: “Time and again we have made it clear to Reach that we cannot continue down this line of a cut to the retailer’s percentage terms every time there is a price increase. Now, more than ever, independent retailers are operating under intense financial pressures and pro-rata terms are a necessity if retailers are to stand still. Reach’s actions are short-sighted.

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“We don’t accept terms reductions accompanying price increases but we have to live with them, while ever the news industry operates as a monopoly.

“If the newspaper sector is to survive, the whole industry must look at the way it is set up as it is unfair to continually chip away at the retail margin whenever there is a price rise.”

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