Following representations from the NFRN, News International is to replace the barcode on its new Sunday paper.

Thousands of newsagents up and down the country were affected when the barcode used for the first two editions of the new Sunday edition of the Sun did not identify the publication as a Sunday newspaper.

Many retailers with older EPoS systems found they were unable to adapt them to allow the barcode to be read, while others who contacted their EPoS providers were given temporary work round solutions but told that a permanent software change could take months to implement.

But now after intervention from the NFRN’s news operations team, News International has vowed to act and is replacing the barcode from this Sunday’s edition.

NFRN Product Manager Brian Murphy explained: “We contacted a number of leading service providers and gathered significant evidence to take to NI to demonstrated the scale of the problem. We are delighted that NI has listened to and acted on our concerns by confirming that that they will be producing a new barcode for the title.”

REPOSS advice before The Sun decided to change the barcode on Sundays:

Due to the new Sunday Edition of the Sun having the same barcode as the Monday to Saturday edition, you will have to create a new publication called Sunday Sun and add this as a weekly title. Please do not scan the barcode as you will receive the message ‘duplicate barcode’ if you try to do this.  You can then add this to a customer's account as normal. It will also charge as a normal Sunday title. When booking in this new title you will need to type in the publication number instead of scanning it. The same goes for when you do your returns. To sell the publication in till mode you will need to create a hotkey for it. If you are a Supernews user you will have to type in the publication number.