Weekend edition of ‘i’ blames newsprint price hike

The i’s weekend edition, which is a British newspaper owned and published by Johnston Press, will put up its cover price to £1 this week as its editor blamed the 20p hike on rising newsprint costs amid the ‘challenging nature of the news industry’ in the region. Editor Oliver Duff said by increasing the price of iWeekend from 80p, it would limit the impact on readers to one day a week and ‘still represent excellent value’. The Saturday newspaper, launched by Johnston Press in September last year, was described by Duff in his letter from the editor this weekend as “a lively package without any of the supplements that clog Britain’s recycling bins”.

Duff admitted the cover price is an “unwelcome” change, but explained the cost of raw materials has “risen sharply” and some of the increase needs to be passed onto readers.