Richard Desmond is to continue his attempts at sparking a tabloid price war with plans to almost halve the cost of the Saturday edition of the Daily Express in the new year.
Desmond attempted to start a price battle with rivals Trinity Mirror and News UK, publishers of the Mirror and the Sun, in October by halving the price of the Daily Star and the Saturday and Sunday editions.
Desmond, who earlier this month threatened to extend the cuts to his flagship titles, is understood to be planning to cut the price of the Saturday edition of the Daily Express from 85p to 45p from 2 January.
It is also thought that the weekday and Sunday editions of the Express could still be subject to price cuts.
Desmond may be testing the water with the Saturday edition first because the Daily Star Saturday has seen the biggest uplift in sales, about 20%, of the current price cut strategy.
Express Newspapers is also yet to inform retailers if their margins will be kept in line with the current price of the Saturday Express – which publishers usually do when the move is promotional – or slashed in line with the cover price cut.
When the cuts were introduced to the Star titles, retailers saw their margins halved, resulting in threats to drop the titles from their stocks.
Desmond’s price war has so far failed to significantly impact sales of rivals the Sun and Mirror.
The Star is thought to have seen sales rises about 10% to 15% on weekdays and Sunday, and about 20% on Saturdays.
This means readers appear to be attracted to buying an extra newspaper, not giving up their traditional Sun or Mirror, or are new to the tabloid market.
While the strategy has seen Desmond put on some sales overall, it is costing Express Newspapers a huge amount as it is not adding enough new readers to make up for the loss in revenues from cutting the price.
