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Publishers are killing the newstrade

Having read last week’s issue of RN, I agree with David Robertson and his views on the latest margin cuts for retailers for the Times.

It’s disgusting what they are doing to those who work so hard to sell their products.

Running a home news delivery business that has been providing a service for over 40 years, and delivering to more than 650 customers, we are seeing longstanding customers – those who you thought would never stop taking newspapers – cancelling their order.

We get praised for our reliability and service, and have got a team of excellent delivery drivers.

Unfortunately, this isn’t enough. People are getting fed up with price increases.

An elderly customer popped into our office recently to cancel her Telegraph subscription, and told us that an over£1,000-a-year print subscription was ridiculous when compared with what she was paying four years ago.

We keep increasing our charges to cover our overheads, but we can’t keep increasing at the same rate as the price increases.

With margins decreasing, it makes it impossible to make any profit.

When Covid-19 happened, we started to do groceries, which I feel should now be our main aim.

We can control the prices, instead of being dictated to.

Publishers say they are supporting print and retailers, but I find that hard to believe.

The younger generations aren’t interested in papers, and not enough is being done to encourage them to buy.

I wish for a day when we can order our papers directly from the publishers and be in control of our