Inquirer, Daily News Hiking Newsstand Prices to $1.50

It's the papers' first increase in since 2011.

Philadelphia Media Network — the parent company of the Inquirer, Daily News and Philly.com — will be raising the price of weekday single issues of both papers from $1.00 to $1.50 beginning May 23rd.

“Our pricing reflects the value associated with our products,” said a PMN spokeswoman in statement. 

The statement continued:

Philadelphia Media Network is committed to providing its valued readers, trusted, relevant, investigative journalism in the Philadelphia region.  We have rebuilt our investigative team with a new editor and combined the watchdog talents of the Inquirer, Daily News and Philly.com reporting staffs.

In addition, both the Inquirer and Daily News have bolstered arts and entertainment coverage with the new revamped Friday “do this” section.  And, starting Memorial Day weekend, we re-launch our popular “Down the Shore” section.

A spokeswoman for the papers said that the cost of the Sunday edition will not increase. Home delivery subscription costs will also remain the same.

This is the first price increase for the papers since January 2011, when the paper upped the single-edition cost from 75 cents to $1 to cover “content and design enhancements.”

While some have raised concerns that the price increase might translate into a drop in circulation, studies have shown that for several large newspapers, price increases have led to increased circulation revenue without a significant change in circulation.

Poynter reported in 2012, that when larger newspapers like The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Boston Globe increased single-copy prices, it lead to increases in circulation revenue.

“There is no elasticity in newspaper prices. In other words, a significant price hike won’t necessarily translate into a material drop in circulation. But the extra money raised in the process will provide welcomed help for investments in digital technologies,” Frédéric Filloux, the editor of the Monday Note wrote.

After increasing prices to $1, The Dallas Morning News had an 11 percent increase in circulation revenue. The Washington Post experienced 10 percent jump in revenue when they hiked prices from $1.50 to $2.

However, they do warn that that model may be hard to replicate with smaller newspapers. Instead they suggest looking to advertisers to cover funding gaps.

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