Shop owners will make more profit from every copy sold of Reach’s national newspapers as the publisher protects retail margins in its upcoming price increases. 

Letters sent to stores and seen by Better Retailing show that from 29 April, cover prices on all editions under its Star, Express and Mirror brands will increase. 

All Mirror, Record, Sunday Mail, Express and weekend Star editions will increase by 10p, while weekday Daily Star editions will increase by 5p.  

The publishers’ retailer percentage margins, which range from 18% to 18.5%, will be maintained, resulting in extra profit for stores per copy. 

This is Reach’s first cover price increase in several months, after a promise in summer of 2023 that prices would not be increased again that year. However, in a recent meeting with investors, the publisher claimed it now had room to increase prices without significantly harming sales. 

In the letter to stores, Reach stated: “We are of course aware of the challenging trading conditions we all face and we would like to pass on our thanks to all retail colleagues for the much-valued support that they give our titles day in, day out.” 

Retailers were warned to check the new barcodes for post 29 April editions carefully after one shop owner spotted that many are ‘recycled’ from a decade ago. The old barcodes carry old prices, creating a risk of till systems undercharging shoppers unless the price associated with the barcode is updated by the shop owner or their partnered EPOS firm.