UP TO 400 newsagents around Ireland are expected to boycott selling the Sunday Independentnewspaper this weekend as they escalate their row with Independent News Media over a cut in their margin.

This includes 120 to 130 Spar shops in Dublin and elsewhere, which form part of the BWG wholesale group.

The Sunday Independent has a circulation of more than 280,000 copies a week and losing distribution in so many shops would put a large dent in sales.

The row follows a recent decision by INM to cut the margin that retailers earn from the cover price of each newspaper they sell. This change applied to the Irish Independent, the Evening Herald, the Sunday Independentand the Sunday World.

In the case of the Irish Independent,the biggest selling daily here, the cost to the newsagent was increased to 1.186 cent per paper, compared with 1.17 cent previously. Over the course of a year, this would amount to a substantial sum for retailers.

INM also trimmed the allowance paid to retailers for placing inserts into its newspapers.

In addition, delivery charges were increased on January 4th by distribution company Newspread, which is owned by INM. The so-called “carriage charge” was increased by an average 24 per cent, adding about €450 a year to a newsagent’s cost base.

A small number of retailers in the west recently started boycotting sales of certain INM newspapers as a reaction to the increased costs to them of selling the titles. Discontent has now spread to other parts of the country.

Vincent Jennings, chief executive of the Convenience Stores Newsagents’ Association, said retailers were angry with INM.

“It’s a double whammy for retailers,” Mr Jennings said. “They [INM] are cutting the amount paid for every paper sold and charging more for delivery.

“We cannot, under any circumstances, afford to take a cut of anything like that.”

A spokesman for INM said that the margins the company pays retailers continue to be among the highest in the industry.