Tesco in cut-price magazine war

A month ago it was sportswear makers and now the Tesco supermarket chain is taking on the pricing policies of Britain's magazine publishers, slashing the price of weekly women's titles by one-fifth for a month.

From today a range of publications, including the likes of Bella, That's Life, Take A Break and Eva, will have 20p per cent knocked off the cover price. But its move was dismissed as simply a gimmick by one of its major competitors, Asda.

Tesco said the move was part of a campaign to demonstrate the need for more flexible magazine pricing. "We are unable to pass on the same cost benefits of supermarket shopping to our customers with magazines as we can with other products," a spokesman said. The distribution system also meant that it was unable to pass on price-cutting promotions.