The seven-month Chinese-language newspaper price war will come to an end this weekend when Oriental Press Group's the Sun raises its cover price to $4.
The paper blamed the 33 per cent price rise on a surge in the cost of newsprint and oil.
In a front-page notice announcing the increase, the paper said it was mainly due to 'the surge in the oil price which is expected to be sustained for a long time. The operating costs of the newspaper such as newsprint and ink are also under pressure'.
Oriental Press' share price was not affected yesterday, closing unchanged at $1.69 but Apple Daily publisher Next Media was up 6.1 per cent at $4.35. Hong Kong Economic Times Group, the publisher of financial daily Hong Kong Economic Times, rose 3.16 per cent to $2.45.
The Sun sparked the price war among Chinese-language newspapers in October last year when it cut its cover price from $6 to $3 to celebrate the daily's seventh anniversary.
The price-cut strategy helped propel the Sun to the No2 spot ahead of Apple Daily and claimed an average daily circulation between 300,000 and 400,000 copies.
Oriental Daily News is the best seller with more than 400,000 copies daily.