WH Smith removes Telegraph from railway station stores
WH Smith has stopped selling the Telegraph in some of its branches following a dispute over prices.
The decision to stop selling the newspaper in its railway station shops comes after the Telegraph increased the price of its daily, Saturday and Sunday editions earlier this month.
However, the newspaper publisher has not yet increased the amount it pays to retailers to stock the paper.
At the beginning of February, the company increased the price of the daily and Sunday editions to £2.50, and the cost of the Saturday paper was hiked to £2.80.
Retailers will be paid a higher price of 51.25p per copy – and 57.4p per Saturday edition – from 1 August, however they are currently still receiving 43p per copy sold.
Meanwhile, some WH Smith branches have moved the Telegraph from the newspaper section to magazine racks.
However, around 120 stores at railway stations have removed the paper from sale completely, the Financial Times reported.
According to a memo seen by the FT, more than 500 WH Smith stores were ordered to move the Telegraph from the newspaper section to the magazine section “with immediate effect”.