Financial Times to raise cover price by 30%

LONDON - The Financial Times is raising its UK weekday cover price from £1 to £1.30, while in the US, The Wall Street Journal has elected for a 50% rise to $1.50.

From tomorrow, the FT's Saturday edition is also going up from £1.50 to £1.80, with the weekday price rise in effect from Monday.

An FT spokeswoman said: "For the weekday, this is the first rise for five years, and follows a period of sustained significant investment. We have improved our content and design and successfully built a global operation with the world's best journalists and editors. The price increase reflects these investments, which give our readers the quality international news and analysis they require."

The Wall Street Journal's European and subscription price will not change, but its US newsstand edition is to rise from July 16 from $1 to $1.50 (around 75p). The price of the FT's US edition is $2.

The WSJ cited rising costs and falling advertising revenue as the reason for its decision. It has not put its price up since April 2001.

The financial publishers are betting that readers will pay up for the value of the specialist information they supply. The theory was recently endorsed by Rupert Murdoch, who is attempting to buy WSJ publisher Dow Jones.

Speaking in an interview with his Fox television network in April, Murdoch said: "The value of financial journalism -- high-quality financial journalism -- is that you can charge for it."

The FT's move comes after a sustained recovery in its ad revenues and the recent rollout of a global advertising campaign for the title, with the new strapline "We live in Financial Times".

Its UK and Republic of Ireland circulation was 142,005 in May, compared with 138,070 in May 2006. Its six-month average global circulation was 448,970 in May, a rise of 0.47% year-on-year.

The FT has not been impacted by free rival City AM, which has nonetheless carved out a distribution of just over 100,000 copies a day in London.

Market Reports

Get unprecedented new-business intelligence with access to ±±¾©Èü³µpk10’s new Market Reports.

Find out more

Enjoying ±±¾©Èü³µpk10’s content?

 Get unlimited access to ±±¾©Èü³µpk10’s premium content for your whole company with a corporate licence.

Upgrade access

Looking for a new job?

Get the latest creative jobs in advertising, media, marketing and digital delivered directly to your inbox each day.

Create an alert now

Partner content