According to a story on page 3 today’s Australian Financial Review, the global McDonald’s chain is pushing ahead with the sale of newspapers across its network of stores. This would be devastating for Australia’s 4,600 independently owned newsagents and their employees on several fronts:
It dilutes the value of newsagencies in the minds of consumers as the retail point of news and information. It also confuses consumers. It reduces traffic to newsagencies – the channel created by the publishers in the 1800s to sell and support their product. Newspapers are the key generator of traffic for newsagencies – they are the top selling items in most. It helps a global company take business from independently owned small businesses. It harms the fine balance that is a newsagency. A typical newsagency sells newspapers, magazines, lottery products, greeting cards and stationery. Margins are slim. It is the high volume of foot traffic for low margin purchases which keep newsagencies going. Hence the anticipated high impact of the McDonalds push.
The big fat McDonalds ought to stick to peddling its food and leave the sale of news and information product to the specialists.
Every small business owner and every person working in a small business ought to boycott McDonalds. We should be supporting other independent small businesses.
Any business supporting the McDonalds push is demonstrating its preference for global companies over locally owned independents.
Newsagents need to rally on this issue and campaign aggressively to their local media outlets.