Some interesting explanations on last week’s news of a single-copy price hike at the FT (and WSJ) from FT CEO John Ridding in today’s Independent: “In the new media age, the internet has put a lot of attention on knowledge of your audience and, in print, the best way of doing that is to build a strong subscriber relationship. Retail is great but you don’t know who they are.”

Indie: “The website, FT.com, has 90,000 subscribers paying a minimum of £99-a-year ($196), a fact which no doubt helped convince Ridding that a £1.30 ($2.58) price for the paper was sustainable.”

Remarkably, Ridding also reckons he can charge more because of growing public interest in business news thanks to shows like The Apprentice—remarkable because most Apprentice viewers are likely to be business virgins, for whom stumping up £1.30 a day is a bigger ask. Ridding: “But we do believe in the value of FT content, we do believe people value it and we do believe they will be ready to pay for it.”

• WSJ, FT Up Print Prices; Sign Of Business Information Confidence