Newspaper publishers want newsagents to display their product in a common way. They like the clone approach. While I understand this and would probably seek the same one size fits all approach if I were a publisher, experience this year in my shop is proof that this approach may well be flawed.
Comparing 2005 with 2004 from January 1 up to August 16, I am happy to report that overall over the counter newspaper sales are up 5.9%. For our highest selling newspaper sales are up 8.4%. Both increases are ahead of industry averages.
We’ve achieved this by breaking the rules. We do not have an approved newspaper display unit. We locate newspaper product in two locations. We display front pages and not posters. We offer value add deals to newspaper customers to enhance the over the counter offering. We retail. We make decisions locally in order to sell more product.
It’s time for newspaper publishers to relax the rules and reward the kind of growth we have achieved. The approach of the big stick is not working. Publishers need to allow newsagents to truly retail their product. (Especially in the light of petrol and convenience, supermarkets and coffee shops dictating to publishers how newspaper product is presented.) If sales are above an agreed goal they ought to pay premium commission. It’s less than the cost of a Monopoly competition or a telemarketing campaign to attract customers who are loyal for a fixed term.
This would be easy to test. I am sure that a sales boost would follow if there was an appropriate incentive. This would need to be a lift from the traditional 25% commission to, say, 50% for over achievement. In my case I estimate that this would be worth at least $2,000.00. The publisher wins. I win. Advertisers win. Well done all round I’d say.
I know that there people from News and Fairfax reading this blog so how about it folks? Are you up for an incentive program for newsagents which could/should boost sales?
I hope so.