Britain's loss-making Guardian paper, which has led the exposure of a phone-hacking scam at Rupert Murdoch's News of the World tabloid, is to hike its cover price by 20 per cent, making it the country's most expensive newspaper.

The Guardian has one of the world's most popular news websites, with 50 million monthly readers, but like its rivals it has struggled with dwindling sales of printed newspapers. Access to guardian.co.uk is free.

From next Monday, the price of the Guardian newspaper will rise to 1.20 pounds ($1.89) from 1 pound, while the Saturday edition will cost 2.10 pounds, up from 1.90.

The Guardian's three main competitors, the Daily Telegraph, News Corp's Times of London and the Independent, all cost 1 pound on weekdays and 1.90, 1.50 and 1.60 respectively on Saturdays.

In its financial year to April 3, Guardian Media Group's revenue fell 10 per cent to 198 million pounds as digital advertising revenues failed to offset a decline in print, and the company made an operating loss of 38 million pounds.

The Guardian in June announced a major shift in focus and investment to digital from print, and a month later said it would stop publishing its international print editions.

 This week, it announced a new website, guardiannews.com, for the United States, where more than 10 million of its online readers live.   

The Guardian was named newspaper of the year at last year's British Press Awards, helped by its partnership with WikiLeaks and its relentless pursuit of the News of the World phone-hacking scandal.-Reuters