KPCC News In Brief

LA Times raises newsstand prices

The Los Angeles Times today raised its newsstand price from 50 to 75 cents per copy. The price hike follows layoffs at the paper as its parent company navigates bankruptcy protection. KPCC’s Frank Stoltze reports.

Frank Stoltze: During tough economic times, newspapers often raise newsstand prices to make up for lost advertising revenue. Newspaper Analyst John Morton writes for the American Journalism Review.

John Morton: It used to be that if you raised your price by some amount, you’d lose somewhere around 5 percent of your circulation, but usually within a year or so you’d get it all back. What’s different now is if you lose it, you usually don’t get it back.

Stoltze: That’s because the Internet offers, free of charge, much of the same information newspapers do. The Times’ daily circulation is 780,000. Morton says up to 30 percent of that is probably sold at newsstands.

A Times spokeswoman says 75 cents a copy is “still one of the best deals in town.” She notes that many other area papers, including the Orange County Register, charge as much. The Times Sunday edition newsstand price remains $1.50.

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• January 12, 2009 4:23 PM
• Categories: Business/Economy