Richard Desmond has abandoned his attempt to spark a tabloid price war, raising the cost of the Daily Express and Daily Star titles.
Desmond stunned rivals the Sun and Daily Mirror by slashing in half the price of the Daily Star, Saturday Star and Daily Star Sunday last September.
He followed this up by nearly halving the cost of the Saturday edition of the flagship Daily Express in January.
The company, which said the move was designed to “inject some overdue sales and excitement to the category”, is now set to abandon the strategy with price rises later this month.
The weekday edition of the Daily Star will rise from 20p to 30p, the Saturday edition from 30p to 40p and the Daily Star Sunday from 50p to 90p.
The Daily Express will also increase the price of the Saturday edition from 45p to 80p across the UK, while the Scottish weekday edition will rise from 30p to 50p, according to Better Retailing.
The strategy has boosted sales, with the Daily Star up by almost 22% year-on-year and the Daily Star Sunday up over 26%.
However, the price-cutting strategy failed to rattle the Sun and Mirror, neither of which saw sales affected and did not follow suit with cover price cuts of their own.
