THE costs associated with the purchase of newsprint sourced from overseas markets, the necessity to raise wages due to inflationary trends and general cost increases during the past three years, have forced one of the nation’s biggest publishers to increase advertising rates for all of its products effective June 8.

“We have kept the lid on rates for a number of years and while we have raised some parts of our rate card for the fiscal year 2009-2010 we remain an extremely attractive proposition to advertisers,” said Myanmar Consolidated Media’s CEO Ross Dunkley.

MCM publishes The Myanmar Times in both languages, The Crime Journal and NOW! magazine and employs more than 300 people nationwide.

“We have held onto the bitter end. Our responsibility to our readers is foremost and to that extent we are not raising the cover price of any of our journals, but we can no longer bear the price of imported paper, ink, film, labour costs, energy and growing issue sizes,” he said.

“However, some rates have been cut to assist small business,” said Mr Dunkley.

“For instance in 2002 a quarter page in both editions of MT was $750 – today it’s $570 – I consider that excellent value,” he said.

“The Myanmar Times particularly in the local language continues to be one of the best value-for-kyat publications in the country with issue sizes ranging from 60 to 96 pages.

“For the fiscal year 2009-2010 MCM is retaining most of its standard advertisement sizes, but in order to service its market more comprehensively it has introduced a three tiered pricing structure which allows advertisers to more accurately plan budgets and determine their requirements with greater certainty amidst these challenging times,” said Mr Dunkley.

The three tiered structure includes a business category to preserve budgets and an ‘economiser’ category is designed to save cash, said the company in a press release.

MCM was founded in 2000 and its products are read by nearly half a million people weekly.

Mr Dunkley has also flagged the notion of raising the price of the papers. “I do not foresee the raising of the cover price of The Myanmar Times in the short term. In fact our attitude is to offer more incentives for readers to buy the newspapers. Over the coming times we will introduce changes to the papers as part of our strategy,” he said.