But against trend, the The Guardian, whose sister paper The Observer's berliner format was launched on Sunday, raised its price to 70p to match the Independent's price increase of the previous week.

Associated Newspapers titles the Evening Standard and the Daily Mail sold for 20p and 30p respectively on Monday, part of an ongoing campaign of sporadic price cuts.

Richard Desmond boarded the bandwagon and charged 30p for his Daily Express and Daily Star, with the latter claiming that its 5p price cut was here to stay.

Despite the recently reported decline in readership of red-top tabloids, both The Sun and The Mirror's prices remain the same.

Guardian Newspapers has yet to discover whether the new-look Observer's hectic promotional schedule will have any influence on this quarter's figures.