Beano on this morning's Rip Off Britain (BBC1).

[dreamticket]

Did anybody else see this? I don't normally watch this program, but was late up and it happened to be on. A grandmother who gets the Beano for her grandson complained about having to pay extra for the issues with gifts attached. The editorial reply quoted the usual excuses -- can you guess what they were?

To be honest I don't get the Beano but thought bringing this to everyones attention might be appreciated. You can probably catch this episode on the website or i-player or wherever they repeat these things. The piece did state that weekly sales figures were currently at 37,000.

[Tin Can Tommy]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0 ... Episode_2/

Here is a relevant link.

[Lew Stringer]

The editorial reply quoted the usual excuses -- can you guess what they were?

Not excuses, facts.

This is the sort of bad consumer program that gives all the power to a vox pop mentality whilst ignoring the realities of business. A more balanced report would show that many publications have fluctuating prices these days, and that The Beano is still the cheapest comic on the stands.

But obviously that wouldn't play to the crowd so well. I'd suggest 'Rip Off Britain' is ripping off its viewers with such poor research.

[Tin Can Tommy]

The only reason for there poor research is because it's on day time and good research will clearly make them go over budget.

I am surprised that the kid's grandmother says she just wont buy it when they put the price up to £2.50 what'll she do when they inevitably put the price up for ever to £1.99 (im assuming the Beano will up the price like the dandy did/will I havent been keeping up). Will she still buy it then. Also it still is the cheapest comic around so its not really a rip off its those goddamn licensed tie in comics (Spongebob, Ben 10 etc) which are the rip offs with there low comic content and poorly written features. (I havent read any licensed tie in mags recently so this is poor research but I do know they dropped the comics from Spongebob magazine)

[Gilly]

Yes I happened to catch this on TV by chance and I feel that while I don't like the fact that the price keeps rising every few weeks other publications do it, that is the way things are these days.

The Beano probably gets noticed more because it was 2p back in the 70s.

[Phoenix]

The Beano probably gets noticed more because it was 2p back in the 70s.

It actually went up from 2d to 3d in 1960, Gilly.

[Phoenix]

A more balanced report would show that many publications have fluctuating prices these days, and that The Beano is still the cheapest comic on the stands.

This is of course true but it doesn't explain why there is any real need for these fluctuating prices. On a different thread a week or so ago I said, or at least implied, that the price of The Beano should go up to £1.99 to match that of The Dandy. I also said that it would be better for customers if the price did not then go up further when a gift came with the comic, so that customers would know where they stood, and be able to budget accordingly.

Now I don't know anything about the financial reasons behind Thomsons' pricing decisions. But, if we look at the figures we have been provided with, I suggest that, after increasing the price of The Beano to £1.99, let's call it £2 for ease of calculation, it would seem to be eminently possible for the company to issue a handful of free gifts per year, say one every three months, without passing on to the customer the cost to the company of the said gifts. The extra 50p from each customer, and there are 37,000 of them per week according to dreamticket, would raise £18,500 more than they were getting the week before the price rise. If we then multiply that figure by 52, for the normal number of weeks in the year, the total income to the company from the price rise alone amounts to £962,000. If we then bear in mind that the figure of £962,000 would be only a quarter of the annual income to the company from sales of The Beano, it does not seem too unreasonable to ask the company to swallow the costs of the gifts in the same way as they always used to. Of course there shouldn't be any real need for free gifts at all. The comic should stand or fall on its qualities, and The Beano seems to have many, balanced with its price. Value for money in other words, but the same price week in week out.

[Digifiend]

I agree. The Beano itself isn't a rip-off, but the covermounts are. I'd rather they charged the same every week (£1.99) and any gifts (which there doesn't need to be so many of) truly were free.

The Beano probably gets noticed more because it was 2p back in the 70s.

It actually went up from 2d to 3d in 1960, Gilly.

She said 2p, not 2d, and it was 2p in the 70s. The price changed from 4d to 2p upon decimalisation in 1971.

[AndyB]

By 1979 it was already 6p - not very small rises in those days!

I suspect that the Beano's price rise has been put back because it's making more money than the Dandy. Vicious circle time.

[Phoenix]

She said 2p, not 2d, and it was 2p in the 70s.

Tired eyes at nearly 2am. Thanks for pointing that out, Digi.

P.S. You say She. How do you know that Gilly is female?

[Lew Stringer]

The only reason for there poor research is because it's on day time and good research will clearly make them go over budget.

They were already filming in a newsagents. It would have cost no extra to the budget to look at the prices of other comics/mags on the shelves, or to ask the newsagent in the feature if fluctuating prices were the norm with other comics (which they are), including the BBC's own Doctor Who Adventures which sometimes has a higher cover price.

DC Thomson may have explained all that to the BBC anyway, but the programme chose to cherry pick phrases instead, whilst giving the consumer full comment. This is a typical piece of biased reporting, portraying the consumer as the victim of a "rip off" and portraying an easy target as the villain without even covering the full story of the part retail giants play in such price increases. But then WH Smith, Asda, etc stock BBC Magazines, so perhaps they didn't want to rock the boat.

(Notice also that the item ends on the suggestion that The Beano is a bad influence. They do it lightheartedly, but the inference is there. The whole item seems determined to show The Beano in a bad light. This is really bad TV.)

[Digifiend]

Maybe DCT can sue for libel!

[Lew Stringer]

Maybe DCT can sue for libel!

It's not libel, just sloppy journalism.

[Gilly]

You say She. How do you know that Gilly is female?

So the big mystery on here now is am I male or female.

I suspect that the Beano's price rise has been put back because it's making more money than the Dandy. Vicious circle time.

I agree that could also be the reason why The Dandy only had 1 week in its new 36 page format at the price of £1.50, as it doesn't sell enough to increase the pages at that price.

[-MikeD-]

(Notice also that the item ends on the suggestion that The Beano is a bad influence. They do it lightheartedly, but the inference is there. The whole item seems determined to show The Beano in a bad light. This is really bad TV.)

I really wish kids' comics were a bad influence...as in counter-culture, rebellious, anarchic, challenging to the mainstream...(just thinking out loud).