This article focuses on The Guardian newspaper increasing their weekday and Saturday editions to cost 20p more which is similar to the Times newspaper. From the 11th January, the Saturday edition of the Guardian ill increase from £2.30 to £2.50. Likewise, from the 13th January the weekday edition will increase from from £1.40 to £1.60. These changes could suggest that the company wants to make more revenue by increasing their cover prices as some people may be willing to pay more to read the newspaper. Notably, the Guardian newspaper raised their cover price of the weekday and Saturday editions last year January as well.
Additionally, The Observer which is published by Guardian News & Media, will still remain £2.70. A spokeswomen for the GNM states: "While price rises are never easy decisions, it will enable us to continue to offer our loyal and engaged audience an improved, quality product, despite the tough market". It could be suggested that by increasing the cover prices it is a message to the readers of the new features in the newspaper and therefore it is better to raise the price. Moreover, from Monday the Times newspaper had also increased their cover price from £1 to £1.20. The editor of the Times, John Witherow notes: "No publisher likes to increase its price, but we believe we have been the best value quality paper for several years now and remain great value for money". The changes of the cover price could still make their readers buy the newspaper as it has been popular amongst middle class individuals. As a result, the subscribers of the Times online get the weekday version for 60p per day.
Overall, the changes of the cover prices could prevent some individuals from buying The Guardian as they can access the online version for free. This conveys the importance of new and digital media, as individuals can receive instant news updates through The Guardian app, instead of buying the newspaper. Regardless of this, The Guardian targets the demographic of middle class individuals, who are keen to read about the latest social, economic and political issues around the world. Thus, they may still buy the newspaper even if the cover price has increased. Similarly, the old generation are also likely to purchase a copy of the newspaper due to the developments of new media which makes it hard for them to use smartphones to access the news.
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