Fuel surcharges threaten news retail margins
CSNA warns fuel surcharges and fixed cover prices are eroding already tight retailer margins in news retail
Print20 March 2026
Sometimes you need to stand back a little to see how, at times of great upheaval, a time-honoured system such as publishers printing a retail price on every copy can be unfair to those retailers that the publishers still rely upon to sell their products, the CSNA claims.
The forewarning by Newspread that it may need to implement a fuel surcharge on all deliveries (for which, we remind you, they already receive a significant sum) if the upward price movement of diesel continues to impact their contracted carriers is a case in point.
In practically all products that it sells in its stores, the retailer sets the retail price, or agrees to sell at a (wholesaler/distributor/manufacturers) recommended price which has at its core an accepted profit margin to cover the cost of sale.
If and when circumstances change that necessitate an increase in the wholesale price of the product, it is common practice that the retail price will change accordingly, allowing the retailer to maintain its margin.
The presence of a printed cover price on a paper prevents retailers from ever achieving the margin the publishers have “given” to the CSNA.
It sells newspapers and magazines to make a profit.
Carriage or delivery charges have a margin suppressing element that reduce and erode the margin that has been determined by the publisher that should be given to the retailer by its authorised distributor.
The newspaper and magazine publishing industry is facing huge challenges, those who laud and support the need for a free press realise the importance of accountable news reporting.
It is not sure how long there will be retailers prepared to give space over to a category that is now, in many instances, actually costing them money to carry.
The entire industry needs to address this existential crisis and needs to do so urgently.
Adding cost onto cost is not a way forward.
Read more: CSNA seeks Members’ views on banking costs
© 2026, ShelfLife by CSNA
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