Apr 2009 Financial News

Guardian to increase cover price

Apr 06, 2009

The cover price of the daily Guardian will be increased to $2 with effect from Monday April 13, 2009. The price of the Sunday paper will remain at $3. The cover price of the daily Guardian was increased from 60 cents to $1 in 1988 and has fluctuated between $1 and $1.50 over the last 20 years. Managing Director of Trinidad Publishing Co Ltd Grenfell Kissoon said spiralling newsprint costs over the last 12 months and reduced advertising demand industrywide had made it difficult to continue to subsidise the cover price. He said the average newspaper costs $1.90 to produce at current newsprint prices.

Over the past 20 years, salaries, wages, materials and general operating expenditures had increased significantly, Kissoon said. Referring to the cost of newspapers in the US, Canada and UK, Kissoon said although they paid lower prices for newsprint, their cover price, in relative terms, was five to eight times the price in T&T. Kissoon said that over the past seven years, the company had made heavy investments in the design, layout and print quality of the paper, resulting in a more attractive and colourful product, easier to navigate and assimilate and which did not rub off on the reader’s hands. He said the editorial content had also been progressively tailored to attract a wider readership and to be more relevant, interesting and substantial.

In essence, the reader had a more valuable product, he said. Kissoon said the company had plans to provide added value products. Currently, the TV guide, GIE Network, Business Guardian and WomanWise are included in the paper as added value for readers. The managing director advised that Internet readers of the newspaper could look forward to a full e-paper within the coming months. He said the company provided 5,000 newspapers to secondary school on Mondays, free of charge, and also supported the UWI by printing its monthly publication free of charge. Kissoon said the company proposed to maintain these initiatives in its literacy thrust despite rising costs.


Source:
Trinidad Guardian
Monday April 6, 2009

http://guardian.co.tt/news/general/2009/04/06/guardian-increase-cover-price