Although it’s nowhere near as dramatic as the price war that erupted last year between The Daily Telegraph and The Times of London, The Toronto Sun and The Toronto Star have dropped their prices while The Globe and Mail has bumped up the cost of its weekend edition.
Lynda Schwalm, director of marketing for the Sun, says cutting 10 cents off single copies of the Monday to Friday tabloid is a marketing move to keep the paper competitively priced at 50 cents.
The new price, introduced at the end of October, brings papers bought at retailers in line with those sold through street vending boxes.
In addition, Schwalm continues, the price cut is a good way for the Sun to help its readers celebrate the paper’s 25th anniversary.
No other cuts are anticipated, she says, and it will be a couple of weeks before the Sun can analyze the results of its decision.
Monday to Friday, the Sun’s total circulation is 240,000 a day.
Rupert Fry, director of circulation for the Toronto Star, says the recent 10-cent price cut at his paper was a marketing move too, but a conditional one designed to get more readers to sample the paper’s expanded sports section.
Fry says the Star had intended to lower the price just during the hockey season, but now that the Sun has dropped its price, some reassessment may be in order.
The Star’s single copy price has dropped to 50 cents. Its total circulation Monday to Friday is 475,000.
Fry says he hopes the Star picks up some readers from the Globe but isn’t sure it will happen.
Grant Crosbie, vice-president and general manager of the Globe, says, after extensive research, it was decided to get readers to pay for the expanded weekend edition rather than seek more advertising to pay for it.
But Crosbie says he doesn’t want the weekend Globe, now costing $2, to be ‘cavalier’ about prices nor does he want the paper to be known as the most expensive.
The weekend Globe’s total circulation is 365,000 copies.
