The circulation-challenged Daily News appears to have blundered in its latest promotion with a major supermarket chain by pegging its price so low it was ineligible to be counted as paid circulation.
On Monday, 10 stores in the Morton Williams Associated chain began selling the Daily News – which normally sells for 50 cents – for only 10 cents Monday through Friday. They’re also selling it for 50 cents on Sunday, when it’s normally $1.50.
The only problem is that the News, which saw its circulation skid to 688,584 paid in the period ending Sept. 30, 2005, would not be able to count the sales as paid.
Its circulation is now barely ahead of The Post’s tally of 672,731. When bulk sales are subtracted, The Post was already outselling the News, by more than 28,000 copies a day, and that paid circulation number is carefully watched by ad agencies.
According to the bylaws of the Audit Bureau of Circulations, a paper must be sold to the end user at a price equal to at least 25 percent of its normal cover price to count as paid. That would mean the News would have to charge at least 12.5 cents a copy.
Red-faced News officials were apparently aghast that the promo was actually adding bulk circulation to its total, rather than paid.
A News spokeswoman acknowledged that the price was set too low.
“We talked to the store Tuesday and they are going to raise it,” she said.
The spokeswoman was under the impression that the price had already been hiked. But calls to a half dozen stores yesterday found that the paper was still selling for a dime.
“We’re going to raise the price to a quarter next week,” said Morton Sloan, the president of Morton Williams.
He acknowledged that the News had approached the supermarket chain. “I’m doing something that is advantageous for us and for them,” he said. He declined to say how much, if anything, he was paying for the papers.
“I don’t want to discuss the details,” he said. “It would not be in my best interest.”