MCA-OWNED newspaper The Star has raised its cover price by more than 20% or 30 sen per copy to RM1.60, making it the most expensive daily in the country.

The English-language daily said it will now be sold at RM1.60, while the weekend paper will be sold at RM1.80 per copy.

“The price revision is unavoidable due to the tough times faced by the media industry,” said The Star on page 3.

Fees for subscribers will be maintained at RM300 per year until February 28.

New subscribers, however, will be given three different options comprising of The Star newspaper, its ePaper and video-on-demand service dimsum packages ranging from RM179 to RM599.

The price hike of 30 sen per copy is expected to earn The Star an additional revenue of RM50,000 per day or RM1.5 million per month.

According to the latest figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulation, the paid circulation for The Star averaged 175,986 copies per day for the period of January-June last year. In 2012, The Star was averaging around 290,000 copies per day.

The price hike comes amid higher pre-tax profit in the third quarter of 2018 due to a 17% jump in the group’s digital advertising revenue and a retrenchment exercise after the paper closed down its Penang printing plant.

In December, the company said it had recorded pre-tax profit of RM2.45 million in the third quarter, compared to RM2.25 million in the previous quarter.

From January to  September last year, The Star group’s pre-tax profit had increased 8.2% to RM22.29 million.

On a segmental basis, the print and digital business posted a lower pre-tax profit of RM21.07 million compared to the previous year’s RM31.5 million due to losses suffered by its new venture, dimsum.my.

The Star Media Group Bhd shares closed at RM0.68 on Monday. In August 2018, Star Media was trading at around RM1.– January 1, 2019.