Prize Reduction

[brainiac]

I see today that after many years the Sunday Express has reduced the prize for their Magazine crossword from £1,000 to £250 - are they really that hard up? Maybe they'll use the money they've saved to improve the pathetic, cheap-looking Magazine!

[jan1956]

would be good if 4 people then won, give us a bit more of a chance

[planeman]

Hello Brainiac
Have you seen my answer in the "Crosswords" section ??

[teacher1]

The total prize money is now reduced over a week to £400 ..... down from £2125 !!!! They must be struggling !

[TAFFWILLIAMS]

The Sunday Telegraph has also stopped paying for their Sunday GK crossword.

The prize crosswords were one of the main reasons that I buy these papers.

[muddlebrain]

i get the latest news from the internet,I also only buy newspapers for the prize crosswords.The mail has also greatly reduced the number of nectar points it gives daily since the introduction of the spin the wheel,much more of this and i will give up on newspapers altogether

[allanbrunner]

They must be; both Sunday and Daily are pricing themselves out of business. At £ 2.30 for 68 pages, the Sunday Express is 15% more expensive than the Mail on Sunday (112 pages - £ 2). Its business/finance section is pathetic. Daily Express on Monday is equally poor value. I've already stopped buying that one and the Sunday Express will go the same way.

It's a shame because the crosswords are good but no longer value for money.

[smiley1]

Same here, the skeleton is only one £50 prize now for the mystery word so the £100 and £25 ones for the crossword have gone, plus the £250 crossword has no mystery word anymore. I gave up buying the Monday express a while back as the cost of the paper is £1.20 , again I only buy papers for the crossword, but won't now

[Sundaygirl52]

Yes, am disappointed, and have e-mailed the editor that I find this unnecessary penny-pinching from a big concern like theirs!

[brainiac]

I don't buy the Sunday Express (neighbour gives it to me when she's finished with it), but it really is the most pathetic, cobbled-together rag I've ever come across. I don't see how it can be short of money as it's now owned by Reach, who also own the Mirror and Sunday Mirror. Maybe it's because of all that compensation they've had to pay out to those they'd hacked.

[Wrangler3]

I've been doing it since the early eighties and once won £25! It's part of my weekend and I have learnt so much from it! Had the prize kept up with inflation, it should now be just over £4000. Wonder how much they've made selling my name and address to third parties? Doesn't seem worthwhile doing it now - another constant gone :-(

[barry1010]

Which newspaper used to pay readers who spotted spelling and grammatical errors? They'd all be bankrupt now if they kept up that practice.
I haven't bought a newspaper for many years and I haven't seen vacancies for paper deliveries for a long time. I remember when the papergirl used to deliver morning and evening to nearly every house in my cul de sac, now nobody near me has the papers delivered.

[brainiac]

A lot of people subscribe online now, barry, to save money

[douglas9401]

If I need to be told a complete pack of lies on a Sunday I simply take myself down the pub and chat with the other losers saving the need to cut down so many trees.

[poorclare]

Most of the Sunday/Daily papers cannot be entered on line.

[bednobs]

it is ironic but all those people saying they dont/wont buy it anymore because of the lack of prizes are the very reason the prizes are reducing