'NY Post' Hikes Weekend Price as Circ Slips

Having already doubled its weekday newsstand price in May, Rupert Murdoch's New York Post is following up with a 25-cent hike for its weekend editions. The paper informed readers in a note this morning, blaming the increase on "higher production costs."

The Post has poured a lot of money into its Sunday edition this year, adding a glossy supplement, Page Six Magazine, and a books-and-opinions section, PostScript. But circulation of the Sunday paper actually dropped 4.7 percent in the six months ending Sept. 30, averaging 386,105 copies, according to figures released last week. The Saturday paper, meanwhile, was down 3.8 percent year-over-year in that period, selling 421,848 copies.

The good news, as Murdoch would see it, is that the arch-rival New York Daily News was down even more sharply, albeit off a higher base. Its 674,104 Sunday copies represented a 7.2 percent falloff from last year, and its Saturday average of 465,779 was down 7.3 percent.